March 2008 — News
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A Taste of Web 2.0
I'm captivated by the potential of VoiceThread, which has made its premium account available to K-12 educators for free. "A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos)." The beauty lies in the commentaries that people can add to the media using a mix of voice with a microphone or telephone, text, audio file, or video with a Webcam. This allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place. Even doodles can be added in feedback. You can designate your media as public, private, or accessible by a select few, the last of which is a good safety feature for students. For a nominal fee, K-12 educators can ensure their students are collaborating in a secure and safe network by using the Ed.VoiceThread. It's a private space by default "for creating digital stories and documentaries, practicing language skills, exploring geography and culture, solving math problems, collaborating with other students, or simply finding and honing student voices." Plus, there's an option to make those creations public. Public sharing does tell students their creativity has added value.
Students, ages 8 and up, can create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art using Scratch and share their creations on the Web. According to MIT Media Lab, the developers of this free software, as young people create Scratch projects they "learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design." (See THE Journal's case study on the use of Scratch in K-12 here.)
Of course, Web 2.0 offers learning in game-based environments and virtual worlds. Tabula Digita's DimensionM games for mathematics are among those. This award winning 3D immersive software for pre-algebra and algebra 1 can be implemented for single-players or multiple-players. The intrigue for using this commercial product is that students, classes and schools can compete internally or across the Web with others from around the globe. The top ten players and schools are posted at the Web site. Representative virtual worlds for K-12 learning include Whyville for ages 8-16; Indiana University's Quest Atlantis where students aged 9-12 complete a variety of quests linked to academic content standards; and Harvard University's River City for science in middle schools.
Safe social networks, blogs, and wiki spaces are available for educators to create private, protected environments for learning.
