One of our goals in ET630 is to explore a variety of Web 2.0 tools. In the past, I have picked a specific tool and required everyone to use it. This semester, every group will experiment with a tool of its own choosing. Our experiment should take no more than a few minutes per class. Each class, toward the end of class or right after class, a student (or pair of students) will create a brief summary of the class using any Web 2.0 tool. This could include blogging tools (such as EduBlogs or Blogger), Wiki tools (such as WikiSpaces), vodcast tools (such VoiceThread), podcast tools (such as PodOMatic), social networking tools (such as Edmodo), or (even better) something else that the instructor and/or members of the class aren't aware of. The only requirement is that the tool must provide some mechanism for classmates to respond (many tools will have that built into the system).
When it is your turn, you will create the summary and make it available to your classmates and instructor in such a way that they can comment (most tools will not require accounts for everyone, but if they do, be sure to facilitate that happening). When your summary is ready, email the class to let them know how to find it and any instructions they might need to make comments.
Your summary does not have to be long or technically proficient. For many of you, this will be the first time you have used the Web 2.0 tool you have chosen. For video and audio, your summary will probably be about 2 minutes long.
You are strongly encouraged to use a tool
that has not been used for a class summary earlier in the semester.
That is, if someone has already done a class summary doing VoiceThread,
avoid using VoiceThread for yours.
You will sign up for one class period to post the summary. You will sign up through the wiki: http://et630.wikispaces.com/.
Follow the instructions at the wiki being sure to not add extra spaces
or lines. Just replace one of the lines with your name. Do this by the
end of the first class and (check that you got in
because odd things happen when multiple people try to edit the wiki at
the same
time). Most classes will have two people working together.
You must post your summary soon after
class so your classmates can make comments. This
should not take more than 15-30 minutes (allowing 5 minutes to play
with
the very easy tools, 5 minutes to figure out what you are going to say,
and 5 minutes to actually create the summary). Our goal is to get some
experience with the tools and offer some insight about the day's
class. Do not feel like you have to make overly profound statements in
the summary or cover everything that we do in class. The expectation is
that you will throw this together quickly after class so you will not
be graded strongly on content (if it is about the content of the day's
class, it is good enough). The critical thing is that you get
it done right after class. You only have to do it once during the
semester.
Everyone in the class is expected to
comment on the summary each week in any of the forms that the chosen
platform accepts. This should be very low impact and should not
take more than 5 minutes of your time. Comments will generally be in
the range of a couple of sentences. Comments must be made by the
start of the following class.
This assignment is ungraded, but it will factor into your class participation grade. The expectation is that your summary and comments will be on topic. You are not expected to spend large amounts of your time on this so don't feel like you have to spend hours (or even minutes) preparing the world's most insightful summary or comments. If you did the summary your assigned class and made comments all other classes, you will be fine. Just do it and have fun with it.
This page was prepared by: David M. Marcovitz, Ph.D.
Last updated: January 7, 2013