What's+It+All+About

Background information. Provide an explanation or description of Web 2.0 tools for elementary classrooms, as well as a few illustrative examples.

Web 2.0 Tools share some common attributes:

 * 1) They are web-based - free of constraints of hardware or operating systems
 * 2) They offer open-ended creative potential
 * 3) They are designed to allow users to share, collaborate and learn from others

=__WIKIS__= (from Jon Orech's wiki Learning with wikis)
 * What is a wiki?** A wiki is a collaborative writing space that allows users to read, add, and edit text and files of any kind including sound, movies, and links to other websites. Very little tech. expertise is required to contribute to a wiki, and only a web browser and an internet connection is needed. All wikis contain two vital commands: “edit” and “save.” Users can also view the history of a wiki to compare any of the iterations of the project. The most popular wiki today is Wikipedia. A great introductory document is available from the Educause Learning Initiative entitled “The Seven Things You Should Know About Wikis” ([])
 * How can I utilize them for students?** The idea of a collaborative creation space for students has limitless possibilities. Students can create a biology on-line textbook, in Literature Circles (Harvey Daniels) students can culminate the process with a set of “Cliff Notes” on the book studied, students can collaborate with a school across town or across the country to create any kind of a project. Wikispaces has a page that has a variety of wikis used in education: (http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis)
 * What are the advantages**?
 * Relatively simple technology
 * Promotes “real-world” collaboration skills
 * Fosters richer communication than synchronous communication (Mabrito, 2006)
 * Pools strengths of many
 * Assessable, easy to track
 * Online collaborative writing produces higher quality writing than face-to-face collaboration (Passig and Schwartz, 2007)
 * What are the concerns?**
 * Security/safety issues
 * Potential biases
 * Labor for moderator
 * Combating“ Copy and paste” philosophy
 * Potential inequitable work distribution by contributors

=DELICIOUS (Social Bookmarking)= Social bookmarking is the practice of saving bookmarks to a public Web site and “tagging” them with keywords. Bookmarking, on the other hand, is the practice of saving the address of a Web site you wish to visit in the future on your computer. To create a collection of social bookmarks, you register with a social bookmarking site, which lets you store bookmarks, add tags of your choice, and designate individual bookmarks as public or private. Some sites periodically verify that bookmarks still work, notifying users when a URL no longer functions. Visitors to social bookmarking sites can search for resources by keyword, person, or popularity and see the public bookmarks, tags, and classification schemes that registered users have created and saved.

=XTIMELINES= Powerful and well designed timeline creator. Attach images or embed media to any entry, provide source info (for historical timelines?), tags. Can import data from Excel/CSV files.

=ANIMOTO= Online "video" creation tool that dynamically adds flare and presence to your uploaded photos and text. Large library of included music can be added to play behind your pics or you can upload your own. Possible to upload voice narration to accompany photos. MAKE SURE you sign up for EDUCATOR package so you are not limited to 30 second "videos".

=VOICETHREAD= Gaining popularity among educators as an easy-to-use presentation tool that allows for voice narration to accompany each "slide" in the show. Also allows for others to add audio or text comments about each slide. Teachers or students can give each other feedback directly within the created "product".

=JOGTHEWEB= Easy to use, clean interface that lets you assemble a "set" of chosen websites that you can then share with others. Simple navigation bar on the left lets you step through the websites that are displayed live on the right. Great way to set up a lesson focusing on just the sites you want to use or reduce distractions for students doing online research.