Members of the audience responded well to this discussion among leaders in the Media Specialist (MS) Special Interest Group (SIG). Discussions included use of free, collaborative, social networking tools (I cannot bring myself to use the overwrought "Web 2.0" term), including the following:
http://www.blogger.com
http://www.wikia.com
http://www.wikispaces.com
http://www.secondlife.com
Frankly, I found too much enthusiastic head-nodding at the "cool" features of these tools, including a lengthy discussion of the different avatar options in Second Life. I am looking for more wide-spread and quantifiable evidence as to the efficacy of these tools among students, evidence that did not make its way into this morning's discussion. Much new media Kool-Aid was present, with few specifics about how these tools improve learning.
This is not to say that online journaling (a technology that has been around for more than a dozen years, by the way) or collaborative workspaces don't have real benefits to students and teachers, especially those looking to reach less-engaged students. I just felt that there needed to be more substance behind the enthusiasm.
One tasty nugget that came out of the discussion was a watchdog site that tracks the use and abuse of online journals, giving educators using these tools a great resource to help protect students as we empower them with collaboration tools:
http://www.BlogSafety.com
On to the next session...
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