Useful Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers and Students
In this issue's column, 1 am introducing several useful Web 2.0 tools to those of you who are just beginning to use the read/write Web in your school library program. These tools enable many types of student and teacher collaboration.
ONLINE COLLABORATION AND DOCUMENT STORAGE
Google Docs, available from the "More" button on the main Google page, is a free online work-sharing tool that has many potential uses for students and teachers. It enables users to create or import existing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that they can edit and upload to Google storage space. The documents, spreadsheets, and presentations are stored online and can then be accessed and edited from any computer by using a web browser.
Users can invite others to collaboratively read and edit uploaded material. There is even a mechanism to enable multiple individuals to view and make changes at the same time using an onscreen chat window. Presentations can be viewed by groups of people in various places simultaneously or separately. Documents can be organized into folders and can be viewed in various versions. Students can use Google docs to take research notes, upload them, and then write and edit research essays and presentations, inviting their teachers and other students to view and comment on various drafts. Teachers can create access for groups of students to work collaborattvery on group research assignments, with the ability to monitor and comment on their progress online. Google Docs is on its way to becoming a "ubiquitous" application in many high schools and colleges, one that is in such wide use that it is assumed that most know how to use it. Is it ubiquitous in your school?
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING
Del.icio.us, available at http://del.icio.us, is being used by millions of people to store and organize their bookmarks online rather than on their browser. This, of course, allows them to access them from any computer and add to and edit them from any computer. As well, because these bookmarks can be shared publicly, users can search the resources others have tagged using similar keywords.
Del.icio.us can be used in schools in many ways. Students doing research assignments can use Del.icio.us to keep track of materials they find online and can look up similarly tagged bookmarks. Pathfinders for student projects can be created, and teachers can organize "reading lists" of online material (including podcasts) they want students to read and listen to. Because it is a collaborative tool, Del.icio.us can be used by groups of students (using a shared user name) to collect and organize relevant bookmarks for use in group project work.
PHOTO SHARING AND SLIDESHOW CREATION AND SHARING
Flickr, available at www.flickr.com, is one of the earliest read/ write web tools and has grown to gigantic proportions. Providing online management of photographs, Flickr enables users to upload and share photos publicly or privately and allows them to organize photos collaborativety in sets by allowing users to give others permission to add comments, notes, and tags to posted photos.
Because all photo files are tagged, they are easily searchable. Currently, Flickr allows registered users to upload 100 MB per month free and offers unlimited uploading for $25 a year. Many schools now use Flickr as a way to mount slideshow presentations, as a way of highlighting student work, recording special school events, and marketing services and programs. You can highlight your school's library program by uploading photo sets to Flickr and by creating a slideshow and posting it online.
Slide, available at www.slide.com, offers a simple sequential way to create slideshows and then post them on web sites, blogs, and wikis.
Another simple to use online tool, Bookr, available at www.pirnpampum .net/bookr, also enables users to create and share their own captioned slideshows.
One True Media, available at www .onetruernedia.com/otm_site/ public_hom e, provides an easy way to create slideshows with added text, music, and images.
Show Beyond, available at www .showbeyond.com/show /home, enables users to create and share multimedia stories as "slidecasts" incorporating images, sound, and text.