Help!
What Web2.0 tool should I use?
What Web2.0 tool would you use?
This year for my Year 7 maths class I want to have a learning management system – but without using commercial software ie no Moodle (takes too long to learn); no Sharepoint (need access to set up on servers) and no Blackboard (cost too much).
This is what I want to do with it:
- set tasks and have students reply that they have completed them
- put course materials online
- have students ask questions online
- have video lessons that I make available for each teaching moment
- have parents see progress of their child and make comments
- be accessible from home
- have some assessment data viewable
- have students use it to profile some of their work
- and a few other things that I have probably forgotten to mention
- have it semi-private so that students and their parents are the main (only) users
These are some the options:
- Edmodo – can I do most of this in edumodo??
- A blog
- A Wiki
- A ning
- other suggestions?
So, what would you use? Which tool will make it fairly simple, keep it organised and not be too hard for parents to interact with?
Photo: source Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
Side-note: Wasn’t sure what to expect when I typed “help” into the Flickr Creative Commons search engine but there were an interesting range of images.
This could be an interesting task for students to do: with a digital camera take an image that depicts ‘help’, add it to VoiceThread (or blog page), describe your thoughts and invite others to respond.
January 10th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Well I am bias however I would choose a blog for a number of reasons but also consider adding a wiki for tasks that the blog are less suited for. If you set up feedburner and add Feedburner email to the blog the parents will be able to subscribe by email so will have no excuse for not seeing what’s happening on the site.
Have you checked out Darren Kuropatwa work? He is well known for his work with his maths students. Would you like a link to his blog?
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January 10th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
More thanks!!
I have heard of feedburner but have not used it – I have some homework to do.
I was considering combining a blog with Edumodo – I think whatever I choose will need some trial and error and refinements.
I would love the link to Darren’s blog.
You’ve been very helpful.
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January 11th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Definitely all about trial and error. Here is Darren’s blog. He did some interesting stuff with Flickr and his maths students.
Happy to help out. Don’t forget the Class blog list on The Edublogger as there are some maths blogs listed there.
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January 12th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Thanks for the links Sue. There is so much out there – just doing this could be a full time job.
Anyone want to employ me to run my PLN!
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January 14th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Hello Colin. Have you seen http://www.edu20.org ? It is free, offers protected sites as classrooms, staff room etc and seems to have what you want. I have only looked myself so far but a colleague recommended it. See what you think?
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January 14th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Colin -
Do you mean http://www.edmodo.com ? We have used edmodo.com with 80 students for the past two months. It is an awesome secure online community. Our students absolutely love it! Need more info, let me know.
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January 15th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Hi Alijoy,
I haven’t heard of edu20.org, thanks! I will definitely have a look.
Colin
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January 15th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Hi Recessduty,
Yes, I did mean edmodo. I’ve had an account since late last year in anticipation of using it this year.
Would you describe it as being a combination of a blog and twitter for school groups?
Can you give me a brief rundown on how you use it?
Colin
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January 30th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
[...] may recall from earlier posts that I was wanting my maths class to have an online [...]
January 31st, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Ning was mentioned on this post so will tack on a question: Can a NING be used for higher end students in discussing in depth books in literature class? Can it be opened up to people around the world?
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Colin Becker Reply:
January 31st, 2009 at 1:23 pm
A ning is hard to describe – it’s kind of like a wiki, but everyone gets their own space.
You can post on the front page, and everyone who signs up also gets their own page on that ning.
I’ve been using it as a emans to share photos with small groups eg parents of the class my daughter is in, or our school ski trip.
You can set the ning to be private and an access code is sent to invite people. Without the access you code, you can’t see anything.
Have a look at this Ning http://accetour2008.ning.com/ and you will see a set of blue menus, these will give you an idea of what you can do, eg discussions, events, forum, blog.
Hope this helps.
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