Guidance Teachers’ Guidance Teachers’ VisitVisit

May 6th 2009Roger McDermott

Colin BeagrieDaniel Doolan

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Social Software in EducationSocial Software in Education

Plan Introduction Social Software

• What is it? What can it be used for? Varieties of Software RGU School of Computing Examples

• First Year Blogs Hands-on session

• Twitter

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Social SoftwareSocial SoftwareTwo Aspects Social software is sometimes defined as software that

supports group interaction• Web 2.0-based social media tools such as blogs,

wikis, social bookmarking tools, and collaborative authoring environments.

Social software can is also defined as software that supports user-generated content, i.e. content generated by the people that use the website rather than content specially prepared by the site providers.• Social Networking, e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter• Video sharing, e.g. Youtube, • Podcasting, e.g. iTunes

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Social Networking SitesSocial Networking SitesList of Social Networking sites Facebook

• The Wall

• Multimedia content

• Example MySpace

• Bulletin Boards

• Example

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Social Networking SitesSocial Networking Sites Bebo

• Example Twitter

• Example 1

• Example 2 LinkedIn

• Example

• Example 2

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Social Networking SitesSocial Networking Sites Dangers http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12210237/ http://www.komando.com/myspace/index.asp

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BlogsBlogs Vast(!!) number of blogs

• As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.

• Lots of blog directories• www.blogcatalog.com/• www.blogdirectory.org.uk/

Creation is easy using blogging software

• Blogger• Templates

• Wordpress• Themes

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Educational BlogsEducational Blogs Educational blogs form a subset of these.

• Commentary on issues, e.g. elearnspace

• Dissemination of ideas and events, e.g. Leeds Uni

• General school sites, e.g. edubuzz, edublogs, • School blogs• e.g. Aberlady • e.g. Culter

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FlickrFlickrImages and Photos Found at www.flickr.com/

• Conventional browsing Less conventional browsing

• Retrievr

• Tags

• Interestingness

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WikisWikisWikipedia

Other examples Ideas

• Wikis in Education Guides

• Wikis in Plain English

• Wiki Walk-through

• Interview

• GCSE History Wiki

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Other ToolsOther ToolsSocial Bookmarking/Recommendation Tools Del.icio.us Digg StumbleUpon

What We Haven’t Talked About Collaborative Authoring Tools, e.g. Google Docs Video, e.g. Youtube Pod/VodCasting, e.g. iTunes

See www.c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/index.html

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Computer supported cooperative Computer supported cooperative workwork

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How-to GuidesHow-to GuidesLots of sources of information Google Mashable Lifehack

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BlogsBlogs As part of the redesigned Foundation Year, students

were required to keep a personal blog which detailed their learning journey throughout the year.

The ability of readers to comment on publicly accessible material encourages a conversational approach to reflection with incorporation of and reflection on different types of narrative.

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Guidance Teachers Visit, May 2009

Students required to keep a personal blog detailing their learning journey throughout the year.

• Forms part of an e-portfolio of work which would accompany the student throughout their course of study,

• Forms the basis of further activities in later years,

• Tried to encourage a conversational approach to reflection on different types of narrative.

Seeks to develop framework for critical analysis and reflection

Activities form the basis of PDP strategy aimed at enhancing employability.

Personal Reflective BlogPersonal Reflective Blog

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Guidance Teachers Visit, May 2009

The Theory… Students can articulate a personal learning narrative that

is provisional but still locally coherent. Promote interaction with feedback and commentary from

colleagues and tutors. Integrate personal reflective activity with social character

of blogging Can be used to enhance both autonomous and

collaborative aspects of learning.

Why Use Reflective Learning Blogs?Why Use Reflective Learning Blogs?

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Guidance Teachers Visit, May 2009

The Student Blogging EnvironmentThe Student Blogging Environment

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Guidance Teachers Visit, May 2009

The Student Blogging EnvironmentThe Student Blogging Environment

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Guidance Teachers Visit, May 2009

The Student Blogging EnvironmentThe Student Blogging Environment