This document discusses how Web 2.0 technologies can be used to empower students and create a collaborative classroom environment focused on 21st century skills. It provides examples of how blogs, wikis, podcasts, and social networks have been used for student projects on topics like the 2008 US presidential election and social mobility. The document advocates for self-directed learning and problem solving skills through interactive tools that allow students to create, share, and comment on multimedia content both individually and collaboratively online.

1. Thriving in a Web 2.0
Classroom
Tom Daccord

3. “The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very
different kind of mind--creators and empathizers, pattern
recognizers, and meaning makers.”
A Whole New Mind: Moving From the Information Age to the Conceptual
Age
--Daniel Pink

4. “In our modern world, learning seems useless unless it prepares
students to be creative.”
Leonardo’s Laptop: Human Need and the New Human Computing
Technologies
-- Professor Ben Shneiderman

5. “We need self-directed people who either have problem solving
skills or can easily be trained to think on their feet and find
creative solutions to some very tough, challenging problems.”
Mark Maddox of Unilever Foods North America

6. 21st Century Skills
• creativity & inventive thinking (adaptability,
problem-solving)
• collaboration and communication
(synchronous and asynchronous; cross-
cultural)
• digital age literacy (collect, analyze,
synthesize, distribute, present information)

7. Web 2.0 Empowerment
• interactive, intuitive, accessible
• free or low cost
• security & privacy features
• multimedia rich; can embed video
• engenders collaboration & community

8. Examples
Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, Online Social Networks

9. “A Day in the Life of a Hobo”
• Guided Research (Web & Print)
• Group and Individual Responsibilities
• Blogging
• Digital Audio Recording (GarageBand)
• Also: Boomer Interview Project

10. “Great Debate of 2008”
• an exploration and discussion of issues and
candidates surrounding the 2008
presidential election connecting 120
students from around the country
• Great Debate of 2008 wiki: http://
greatdebate2008.wikispaces.com/
• Great Debate of 2008 online social
network: http://greatdebate2008.ning.com/
(private)

11. Classroom wikis
• collaborative teacher and student
contributions
• Tom’s course wiki
• Collaborative Reading & Writing
• Physics Class wiki
• Flat Classroom Project

12. “Social Mobility” Audio Blog
• upload pictures to VoiceThread, record
accompanying audio commentary; invite
others to record commentary
• can embed in blogs, wikis, and other Web
sites; new video feature
• http://www.voicethread.com
• voicethread classroom example
• voicethread in blog

13. “Mobcasts” & Voice-to-Text
• can record and upload a podcast to the
Web via a cell phone
• easy “mobcasting”
• http://gcast.com
• http://www.garageband.com/user/
tomdaccord/podcast/main
• Also: reQall, Jott (voice-to-text)

14. Building a Personal
Learning Network

15. Classroom 2.0
• social networking for educators using
collaborative technologies
• ideas, lessons, tools
• http://classroom20.ning.com
• http://www.classroom20.com/profile/
TomDaccord
• Also: ISEN network

16. Using Social Media
• Google Docs -- share and collaborate on
documents
• Twitter -- share what you are doing and
follow people with similar interests
• Diigo or Delicious -- share web bookmarks
and annotations
• Flickr -- shares photos
• Slideshare -- share PowerPoints & other
slideshows

17. Tom Daccord & Justin Reich
• Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology: A
Practical Guide for Teachers by Teachers
• professional development workshops and
presentations
• tom@edtechteacher.org
• justin@edtechteacher.org