Web 2.0 - School 2.0: Getting Jazzed about what is going on!

First of all... Thanks for the great response to the latest blog entry. I received several responses from teachers and administrators (one Assistant Principal and one Principal) around the district and I feel like there are quite a few opportunities for teachers to collaborate that go beyond what we have seen in previous years.

Here's a little of what I think can and will happen... I heard from a few of the District librarians that they felt they wanted to move forward in integrating technologies into what they do on a daily basis. I suggested to them that they create their own 'District Library' wiki, where they could post all of the materials that are common to all of the Libraries in the District and then use their own school library sites as the place where they could talk about the special collections and events happening at their own Library. I defintely want to pursue this project with them and will be asking to come to their next council meeting. (I'll have a separate post on Libraries in the next few days!) Educational Uses of Wiki's


A second potential collaboration happened when I received an e-mail from a teacher at Mills, who had been doing some things on the 'Read/Write Web' with PB wiki, a free online wiki tool. I took a look at what the teacher had posted and found there were quite a few links to pages that other teachers might find useful. I used PB Wiki with my Computer Systems Design class last year when they did their 'Build Your Own Computer' project, the culminating activity of the class. PB Wiki is a cool tool, but I found something a little better, called Wetpaint. I also heard from a teacher at San Mateo in the same discipline, who wanted to get started with some of these tools, but didn't know where to start. I e-mailed back and said that I would be more than happy to come by and help set up some tools to publish out on the web, but I also sent the links to the pages that the teacher from Mills had sent me. This is the true collaboration that Tim Berners-Lee envisioned when he developed what we call the 'World Wide Web' in 1989.

I went over to Mills this week and met with the science teacher to set up a Wetpaint wiki. When I arrived, he already had his site running and had plenty of ideas on how to use this with his classes, including how the students would add to the site. Now, I will work with the teacher at San Mateo in either setting up their own wiki, or becoming a contributor to the wiki at Mills. Result: Instant visualization of what the teacher at San Mateo wanted see and a potential collaboration of teachers in the same discipline from different schools. Anyone else want to help out???

So, my offer still stands...

If you want to start a wiki or a blog, send an e-mail and I will help... I am only teaching periods 1 and 2, therefore, if you have a prep period after the early morning, I can definitely come by and help you get going. E-mail me and we'll get started.