Kristianstill's Web 2.0 experience

This is where I teach, Tauntons College, Southampton, England. We support 16-19 year old students on a range of course from basic skills through to Level 3 students, who are aspiring to go onto Higher Education and University.

I teach in the Sport and Public Services Department, lead a unique sports course designed to engage male learners through football (soccer). Most of our students also play for one of the College's football teams, so its a wholistic approach and quiet effective. Outside of college I also coach for the local professional football club, so that keeps my knowledge and coaching practice current.

'Wikispaces greatest strength is it simplicity.'

This is the course wikispace was designed to support and engage learners on the course I lead, (but it has grown). It was created in an effort to extend the students learning and as a result I/we stumbled into Web 2.0 'teachology.' It has been a steep learning curve for both myself and the students I teach. We have had our fair share of teething problems, but we have also had some really successes.

A note on wikispaces, Adam and the team at wikispaces have been amazingly supportive, there is a real sense of community and many helpful people contribute voluntarily.

The vast majority of my Web 2.0 experiences and inquiries have been focused on the developing this resource, with and for our students.

Not forgetting the benefits of the wiki. A course noticeboard, wikimail, locking pages, RSS feeds from pages and more.

The Staff Room is a collection of current news (RSS), Web 2.0 information, CPD and Inset, QIA (Quality, Improvement and Assurance) resources and a list of Web 2.0 tools as I find them. It acts as a diary and a means of recording the process and at the same time sharing that information with others.

The Staff Inset is there as a resource for staff that wish to engaged with their students and tries to combine recognised pedagogy, blended learning and web 2.0 solutions, however it relies on the teachers to chose the appropriate combinations. 

As with anyone creating learning resources, I keep a note of the best sites and top tips.

Our first wiki achievement. Here is an example of student authoring. The pedagogy is to take a big topic, break it into smaller parts and ask the students to research and publish their work. Students were assigned topics and a deadline. Two of the more IT literate students were assigned as 'wiki gardners' and one as an 'editor in chief.'

Even though students did not receive any formal training, this page took less than one week (3 x 1hr lessons). Working in paris, the students sourced the information, used the WYSIWYG editor and created hyperlinks without too many hiccups. We even had our first image added. One or two of the students sourced videos of the famous football disasters and together we embedded one into the page.

This task evidence the PASS criteria for all students and some went on to achieve a higher grade based of the information presented on the page and additional research. 

(In my opinion, the information on this page is more information, complete and motivating than in their text book.)

Next came our first attempt at an 'out of classroom experience.' I had created the content on the page and I now wanted to use the discussion facility in wikispaces to generate an extended learning task, a discussion. It failed miserably, I had no blended learning teaching pedagogy and the task lacked structure.

We spoke together as a teaching team and to the students, togther we established some wiki discussion guidelines (we could not find any). We decided on 3 accurate postings that employ appropriate terminology. In addition, we gave them the first 10 minutes of assignment times to either post or read comments. (These discussions help form our Wiki Charter, more of that later)

With regular contact with the discussion and frequent praise of appropriate comments the discussion developed. We were quite astounded by the student response.

Finally we copied the discussion into a Word doc and used it for an assessment for learning (AFL)task awarding the grades to those that had made at least 3 accurate and appropriate postings. You could say the students delivered.

Now, at this point we needed some regulation, some reminders. I simply used WMM to create a Wiki Charter. A little too late, but we requested pics and RealNames (not sure thats a real term but we use it). Then came things like spelling, grammar, and general policy. I am not sure it makes a big difference, but we felt it was part of the education process. Again, information on what should be in the Charter was hard to come by.

Making the movie was simple, getting onto the wiki was simple. I went for goggle video, just because I had a google account, but I have embedded video from youtube, teachertube, and almost all sites offer the embedded code, including TED for example.

If you look at the bottom of the page you will see my first Slide.com presentation. So lets go there next.

One of the ways a wiki can be used is as a gallery. This in turn promts learning. The first embedding tool I came across was slide.com. Again most students were receptive, but dont expect all students to be digital natives. (phone natives yes, IT natives, no).

I will let their work showcase the tool. Again, it is how you use the tool, its the pedagogy not the tool that counts. Now this task could easily have been created in ppt, of course, thats where we got the idea. But the wiki allowed us to present it and share it. If you look closely, the later posting tend to showcase similar images to the earlier galleries. Some of the students ideas for the terminology were much better and more creative than mine. I will be using their ideas next year!

This also prompted students to look at flickr but they tended to stick with what they know, and what they know, is goggle.

There are also slide shows where you can add / mash up content. Bubbleshare is ok.

One of my favourite tools is bubbl.us. I have used it here on the page to show many of the tools available to teachers and students. What I truly appreciate about these tools and their creators is that they are open to suggestions. I requested an embedding feature in bubbl.us and in 3 weeks it was available.

I have used bubbl.us to record lesson discussions, to help students create revision plans and of course brain storming.

One area I was keen to exploit was the use of self testing. I have found a number of great online quizzes. Sometime I write the quiz, something the students write the quix. Here one example. Blockbusters, an 80s teenager quiz so revamped for todays learners. There are plenty of ready made quizzes to try.

There is also a word search tool but with the students I teach I prefer to present words searches without the words, hence requiring more recall ability.

'Learn To Play, Play To Learn'

Real simple. Again the creator is very helpful, hoping for an embedding function soon.

Upload a picture, add your dots and the answers and away you go. The students love the competitive nature of the task. No sooner have they created a quiz then others have posted scores.

'The End of Flashcards'

I strongly recommend this tool, great for revision and great for learning. This tool has three or four learning features, teachers with access to an interactive wipeboard would love the drag and macth feature.

I have not really used a lot of audio in my classes but we have tried to record one or two revision tools. We have made some quiz timers from famous theme tunes and these are stored on our phones. Easy access.

I am sure more can be achieved here, however as I teach on an assignment based course, there is little need for revision Podcasts. One task I have in mind is to take a rather long radio interview and ask the students to edit it.

Finally, I think its important that we give the students the ownership of their work. Our students record their own grades via Goggle doc. At the edit of each scheme of work or semester we sign our their grades as correct and lock the spreadsheet. The students also have access to their course programme via goggle calender and so do their parents.

The main draw back is when the External Education boards question our recording methodology or ask for 'paper' copies!