Boost your students’ participation Web 2.0 in higher education

What is the learning potential in Web 2.0 and Social Media? How do we use it to support our teaching in the international classroom? How do we support student activity through media? 3 examples

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 describes a net where content is being shared, changed, commented, or coproduced by users Web 2.0: Micro-content is, through users’ internet use, collected in new contexts – new micro-content in new context

/10/web-20/ v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Web 2.0 provides learning tools with a broad range of potential for Supporting learning Cooperation Motivation and also to Create good learning environment

A lot of learning in higher education happens through lecturer and classroom teaching

Meanwhile outside classroom people are learning in other ways sometimes without even knowing it Most learning takes place in interactions with other people, in the flow of not defined space and network between study, work and privacy

Social media has, due to this argument, also changed the way we look at learning. - It is possible to search for and access all kind of resources whenever you need them. - But it is at the same time possible to create them yourselves and to share them with others.

An example: Kristel and Vincent are about to write an essay about speech-act in a Danish cultural setting

How does this look for the international student: The same but.. Use of online dictionarys Use of google translator

Increased possibility of unintended plagiarism Increased need of learning community to support learning Need of multimodality as language support

Task: How do you use the net to create and organize knowledge? How do you use it in your teaching practise?

How do they Support language Learning communities and network Informal Learning Student creativity and collaboration

Connectivism Connectivism is a theory that describes how learning takes place in complex environments affected by social dynamics and supported by technology Siemens calls it the theory of the new millennium Simens, 2004,

Knowledge isn’t constructed - it grows and develops in networks and rests in so called knowledge knots outside the individual.

“This amplification of learning, knowledge and understanding through the extension of a personal network is the epitome of connectivism.” (…) “The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe” (…) “As knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access to what is needed is more important than what the learner currently possesses”. (Siemens, 2005)

Connectivism brings out some principles for learning: The brain learns by creating connections between neurones Learning environments should help learning by establish connections between people, that is: communication, cooperation, sharing Learning is an individual process which doesn’t need to take place through a formalized teacher

Looking at learning this way has some consequences for the teacher: If a student has a problem the connectivist teacher wouldn’t think: Strengthen the students’ knowledge, he or she would say: strengthen the students’ connections

What is the learning potential in Web 2.0 and Social Media? Learning is individual and informal leads to independent work and cooperation between students and teachers: Personal tools and cooperation tools Lots of tools support content production Lots of tools support language and communication: Skype, chat etc. Dialog between students and teachers: Discussion forums Being visible and in contact, student-student and student-teacher: Social media Creation of learning communities: Social media Use of net based material and contribution with own material: Sharing services.

But At the same time we need to teach digital behavior (social behaviour, copyright, ethics, privacy etc.) By supporting learning by net based learning tools By supporting learning in networks By teaching our students to handle net based sources

3 examples: twitter, blogs and wikis Twitter: Twitter as broadcast medium Twitter as in-class conversational medium Twitter for student data collection

Blog What is it: Unique perspective to your teaching Making connections between other blogs or information Blog as a class-room diary Blog around a theme Search in Google blogs

Wiki What is a wiki: dnL00TdmLY dnL00TdmLY Example: Wikiversity of Canberra

It is a kind of website where everyone can set up a document, share photos and film There is often a discussion-part connected to the post It is user generated There is 1 or more editors to approve or erase a post It gives the user a feeling of direct user interaction It is characterized by knowledge production through collaboration. Wiki posts can alway be discussed

The teacher can use it to share and and generate course content in cooperation with the students It can be used as a collaborative tool in project work. In that way you have control over your sources and information and you can both communicate information and collaborate on text production and many other things Google wiki: wiki.com

Tasks: 1)Choose a tool: blog, wiki, twitter or a choice of your own. 2)Find some good and interesting examples 3)Discuss the learning potential and potential problems: copyright, ethics, privacy etc. 4)Make outlines for a didactic concept with your learning tool in focus and present it.

Litterature Carsten Günther, 2011: Didaktik 2.0, Akademisk forlag George Siemens, 2004: A learning theory for the digital age, published at connectivism.com Etienne Wenger: communities of practice. Learning, Meaning and identity Jerome Bruner, 1996: The culture of education, Harvard University Press Sune Weile, Weller, M.J. & Dalziel, J. (2007). On-line Teaching: Suggestions for Instructors.