Rip*Mix*Feed

For this assignment I put together a Webslides demonstration using Diigo, to look at how Web 2.0 can be used in the classroom. This ties into the final commentary that I did on Web 2.0 and the pedagogical implications.

At first I was hesitant about this assignment, not knowing quite what to do, but as I got into it, I realized that there were a number of advantages, and disadvantages, to using Web applications. 

I thought the idea of putting together a slide show of web pages was clever. I collected (bookmarked) a number of web pages that could assist an educator in the class by using Web 2.0 applications. I labeled it ‘Head of the class with Web 2.0’. It is one of the lists in My library. 

The site is located at http://www.diigo.com/list/etec540debg/head-of-the-class-with-web-20

Click the green arrow button at the top of the page to view the slides in sequence (as a slide show). If you go into each individual article, you will find helpful literature on Web 2.0 applications, highlighted areas and sticky notes for comments that I made on the literature. They have all been appropriately tagged. 

I started out by showing a number of slides that: 

• Highlighted the Web 2.0 educational tools that can be found on the web. I followed this up by showing a number of pages on:
• Social bookmarking
• RSS feeds
• Chat
• Wiki
• Podcasting
• Digital Storytelling
• Blogs
• VoiceThread
• A social networking site for teachers
• And finally a study looking at the impact of Web 2.0 on education 

I think Webslides is a beneficial tool, however, it is also plagued with a number of issues. I found that the program sometimes appeared unstable – now this just might be my slow computer or security software, however, even at work I encountered these same problems. The ‘highlight’ and ‘sticky note’ functions caused me particular grief – sometimes it would work, while other times it would not, despite repeating the same sequence of events. These functions appear not to work consistently on all web pages. My security software did not like the Diigo toolbar that I downloaded either. Due to the host of technical issues, and the amount of time it took to work out the problems, I am not sure that I would use this process in the future; but it was an interesting exercise.