Using Web 2.0 Tools

This week, I had the opportunity to use Web 2.0 tools to both collaborate with peers and to plan a lesson for my students.

One of the most important learning objectives for my students is to navigate the community, mainly through the use of public transportation.  Understanding the layout of their community and how to get around means that they will be able to go to doctor's appointment, grocery shopping, and have a wider range of adult programs available to them.  This ongoing project will also address the Common Core Standard R.CCR.7:  Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

Until this point, when learning how to get to a particular place, my students have looked it up online and written down transit and/or walking instructions on a piece of paper, which is then generally discarded or lost during or after the trip.  During my collaboration experience this week, it dawned on me that using a Google Presentation and incorporating Google Maps and Scribble Maps might be a better way to accomplish this same task.  

Adding in the use of technology, students will access many higher order skills as described in Bloom's Digital Taxonomy.  Using a Google Presentation, students will collaborate to make pages with links to the locations.  They will use Scribble Maps to locate destinations on the map and where they are in relation to school.  They will plan bus routes using Google Maps and link the directions to the Presentation.  Follow up activities will include uploading photos and video of the trip to the presentation, as well as critiquing the trip and publishing the document so that peers, family, and staff have a record of the week.

Students will still plan their week, choosing locations to travel to, finding them on the map, and planning a bus route.  In addition, however, these digital tools will allow them to do the following:

• ·        collaborate rather than working in isolation
• ·        keep a cohesive record of their plan
• ·        give a place for reviewing and critiquing their implementation of the plan
• ·        a way to share what they are doing/learning with others
• ·        learn computer skills in a meaningful way

Due to the cognitive skills of my students, these weekly projects will need to be modeled, taught 1:1 with many students and then accomplished with frequent staff monitoring, prompting, and support.  By repeating this process on a weekly basis, students will have many opportunities to practice and eventually learn to use these tools. 

I see Web 2.0 tools as not only adding value to a project, but giving me the chance to integrate technology lessons into what we are already doing.