Web 2.0 Tools: Summing it All Up

​​Over the past five weeks, we have explored Web 2.0 tools and their use in education.  While the concept of Web 2.0 was not new for me, I was presented with some new information and things to think about.  The most helpful piece for me was developing an evaluation rubric.  This made me stop and think about what would be important in choosing a tool for educators.  What I learned from this Web 2.0 exploration, is that sometimes the least "fancy" tools are actually the best to foster student-centered instruction.  When used correctly in the classroom, these tools enable our learners to better understand the process of learning, as well as gain a deeper understanding of the material.  These tools enable teachers to let the students create, communicate, and collaborate on a digital format - which is what a lot of students are already doing; this makes the learning more relevant. 

The pitfalls to Web 2.0 tools is they can be over and/or underused.  Sometimes educators want to substitute the technology for good quality instruction, which is not best instructional practice.  The technology you choose should enhance the learning experience for your students.  Through this class, I realized the importance of teaching our students how to use these tools and exposing them to the real world use of technology.  

Another thing I don’t often look at,  but need to consider when evaluating technology tools for educators is cost.  It is frustrating for a teacher to have a new tool ready to use and then find out the best features cost money.  The cost-factor is one of the reasons I like the Google Platform; students are able to use Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawing, Jamboard and drive at no additional cost to the student or teacher.  Now, there are features within the Google Workspace for Education that cost money, but these costs are not related to the use of the main Google tools.

The work we have done in ETEC 527  reinforces my educational philosophy that the pedagogy should come before the tool. If we want our students to use technology tools in a way that maximizes student learning outcomes, we, as educators,  need to plan purposefully in our instructional design.  In addition, this class has reiterated the importance of staying up to date with technology.   Many of the technologies from five or ten years ago are not current and usable today.  By having a growth mindset towards education and the use of technology, we are modeling a culture of growth within our schools and our classrooms.

Vanity Search: Take 2

 

In the second round of my vanity search for ETEC 527, I simply searched Lisa Pogue, Royse City.  The results from this search were all me - and all related to me professionally, except for the dreaded people searches - (dreaded if someone is looking for me, but not so dreaded if I am trying to find someone, teehee).  There was one concerning entry and I truly have no idea how it got there.  I tried to do some investigating, but I'm not even sure what it is.  If anyone knows . . . well help a girl out.  I hope it is nothing to worry about, but I will continue to see if I can figure it out.

As I clicked to the second page, there was one post for Lisa Pogue, the mortgage broker, while the other posts containing much information continue to be from my professional life.  Scroll on over to the third page and the most surprising website showed up.  There is a website, where you can go look up people's yearly salaries if they are government employees!!  WHAT?  That should not be okay, but it's public record and the internet, so . . . . I guess it is.  

Overall,  I'm still pleased with my digital footprint,  any private information that I can control is private and the majority of the information you will find relates to me as a professional educator.  And guess what?  I'm okay with that.  It's who I have been for the last 29 years.  I'm not too pleased with some of the personal information out there that I didn't choose to be out there, but what am I to do?  From these vanity searches, I've learned it's probably a good idea to check your "google" every once in awhile to make sure there isn't anything out there too surprising. It’s nice to know what others will find if they search for you.

Hyperdocs: An adventure or a deadend

 

Our adventure this week was in Hyperdocs, a topic that I felt pretty confident with after the last year and a half of preparing teachers for virtual lessons.  As our Instructional Team planned to help our teachers, we realized that Hyperdocs would be a great way to deliver content and provide a workspace while students were online.  We began digging in and providing training.  It turned out to be more difficult than we expected.

As noted in our reading, a common misconception is that a Hyperdoc is simply a glorified document with links or a virtual worksheet.   When teachers attempt to make a Hyperdoc the very thing it wasn't designed to be, it takes away the power of this learning platform.

After diving into the resources on the Wakelet, I was reminded that just as with all technology integration, an educator must first have an understanding of best practices in teaching.  If a teacher isn't already considering how their students could communicate, collaborate, critical think, or create, then it is difficult to get them to simply transfer their "sit and get" instructional method to an interactive Hyperdoc.  I was even reminded that we need to really think about what we put in a Hyperdoc when we prepare one for our students.  When I am coaching teachers and we are working on a delivery method such as Hyperdoc, Flipped Instruction, or even PBL, I encourage them to choose one unit and really work on the method to make it strong - in lieu of trying to make every lesson a Hyperdoc (when given a choice in a non-pandemic world, of course).  

During quarantine teaching we found that Hyperdocs can also create some roadblocks and/or even deadends depending on the teacher's mentality.  If the Hyperdoc was lengthy or had a lot of different things for the students to create that were linked to other things, then it became difficult to grade.  My recommendation  is to use the Hyperdoc to give students options and only have one or two graded parts.  Let the activities in the lesson focus on the process of learning and not just the written outcomes.  Some of our more successful teachers used Google Docs or Google Slides uploaded to Google Classroom and then pushed out a copy to all of the students.  Each student had their own copy and ALL work was done in the doc for ease of grading.  My first choice for creating Hyperdocs is Google Slides because you can embed videos rather than simply link them.  I have found the more I can keep them in the original doc, then the more likely they are to not miss part of the assignment.

I liked the padlet resource that was provided on our Wakelet assignment because it had a lot of options in one place.  Even though Wakelet isn't my favorite tool, the fact that it was designed with some interaction by having us go out to Twitter and respond to what we learned made the activity more engaging.  It was more of a curation of materials, but the social media aspect created the interaction with other students.  This interaction could have been increased by having us share links to our hyperdocs and respond to each other.  

This week, I have seen some pretty fancy Hyperdocs and I think it is important to remember that "pretty" doesn't mean effective.  Be sure you are focusing on learning objectives and outcomes.  Another tip is to train your students how to use them.  Don't assume the navigation will be intuitive.  Hyperdocs are a powerful tool when planned for and used effectively.