TOOLS FOR THE TEKS: INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

Teaching & Learning with the Read/Write Web

by Wesley A. Fryer
www.wesfryer.com
June 2005

When Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses concerning the Roman Catholic Church and nailed them to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517, technology played a tremendous role in the subsequent dissemination of his ideas and the development of the Protestant Reformation in Europe.[1] Johann Gutenberg had invented the printing press in the 1450s, and because of the technological ability of his invention to duplicate and circulate new ideas, far-reaching religious, cultural, and economic changes ensued after Luther wrote and “published” his thoughts.[2]

Several noted educational technology users and bloggers have observed that in the early twenty-first century, we are experiencing a qualitatively different era of content publication unprecedented in recorded history.[3] It is likely that neither Gutenberg nor Luther could have imagined the age of global publishing which has dawned for the common man/woman today. Different words used to describe this new age of Internet idea publication include:

The Read/Write Web
Web 2.0
The Web as Platform

The rationale for this bold claim of a “new age in Internet publication” is the observation that the requirements for a person to author digital content on the Internet have changed and simplified dramatically. As a result, a wide variety of applications which embody the concept of “the web as a platform” are proliferating. Computing tasks which required specialized software like word processors, spreadsheet programs, webpage authoring software, or digital imaging software can now be accomplished using free services available on Internet websites, and the results can be published for a global audience literally with the click of a button.

In the initial phase of the Internet’s development, the majority of users were primarily information CONSUMERS, rather than information PRODUCERS. In our present era of “the read/write web,” however, access to the Internet is ALL that is required to be a global content publisher. As long as an individual can remember (or refer) to the web address of a site offering “web 2.0” publishing services, along with his/her respective username/password (usually free upon registration), then the prerequisites for web 2.0 publication have been met. This article will highlight multiple “web as platform” examples, along with several implications the “read/write web” can have for education in the twenty-first century.

Although it is not the only technology responsible for the prolific growth of the read/write web, RSS or “Real Simple Syndication” is playing a large role. According to the WikiPedia, RSS is “a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by news websites and weblogs. They are used to provide items containing short descriptions of web content together with a link to the full version of the content. This information is delivered as an XML file called RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream, or RSS channel.”[4]

Acronyms like “RSS” and “XML” can quickly sound like baffling technotalk, but here is a basic summary relevant to classroom teachers: Each of these “syndication” technologies includes a basic design premise in enabling the rapid sharing of Internet content via short, formatted webpages accessed by compatible newsreaders or “aggregators.” The latest iteration of the Macintosh operating system, OS 10.4 “Tiger,” has capabilities built into its web browser (Safari) to read RSS and other news feeds. The next release of the Windows operating system from Redmond, inexplicably code-named “Longhorn,” will also include embedded RSS and feed aggregation capabilities. Many web 2.0 technologies “speak RSS,” meaning they are able to share content using the syntax and format of RSS.

EXAMPLES OF THE READ/WRITE WEB IN ACTION

Blogging: A weblog, or blog, can be simply an online diary or journal of thoughts written by an individual but published for international consumption via the World-Wide Web. Most blogs permit visitors to comment on postings, and thereby participate in the interactive culture which personifies the read/write web environment. Blogs are not limited to being solo efforts, however. Free blogging services like Blogger (www.blogger.com) allow users to easily create “team blogs” in which multiple individuals contribute to blog postings. An example is found at the “Athletics Good News” website of Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, New Jersey. On the blog site, each sports coach has a team blogging account to post “good sports news.” Access this information resource at http://central.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/athleticsgoodnews/, or subscribe to the RSS feed with Bloglines or another RSS aggregator at http://central.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/athleticsgoodnews/xml/rss.xml.

Aggregators: An “aggregator” is a software program or website that allows content from multiple RSS sources to be collected and displayed on a computer. Typically, an aggregator will provide relatively clean, fast, advertisement-free access to RSS content. Author and educator David Warlick encourages teachers to think of aggregators as “digital newspapers” that can collect and display information sources from a wide variety of sources.[5] Popular web-based aggregators include the free Bloglines website (http://bloglines.com) and the “My Yahoo” RSS Headlines module (http://my.yahoo.com/s/rss-faq.html.) Web-based aggregators like Bloglines also allow users to share their favorite or recommended RSS feeds. An example (the author’s Blogline feeds) is available at http://bloglines.com/public/wfryer.

Wikis: The Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org) is now the largest encyclopedia in the world. It is completely free, available in over thirty languages, and has been entirely authored by volunteers. The technology which undergirds the Wikipedia is freely available, open source software (http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net/), and has tremendous potential for educational users at many levels. In Spring 2005, the author was a student in an Educational Law graduate course, and was assigned a group project involving students from Lubbock, Amarillo, Lamesa, and Plains, Texas. The student group never met together in person, but was able to utilize a free wiki-hosting service (www.jot.com) to create a publicly accessible resource about “Student Cell Phone Use and Other Technology Concerns for Schools” (http://edlaw.jot.com). Since Wiki software records past versions of created webpages and tracks which users made which changes to the site, this read/write web technology not only offers comparative benefits to students needing to collaborate in the creation of joint documents, but also offers benefits to instructors wanting insights into the respective contributions (or non-contributions) of students in assigned groups.

Social Bookmarks: Web-based services for saving and referencing Internet website favorites or bookmarks have been available for many years, but relatively recently “social bookmarks” that conform to the RSS information sharing standard have emerged. One free example is http://del.icio.us, a website that allows users to quickly (through the use of “bookmarklets” explained in the ABOUT section of the website) save desired website addresses and categorize them with one or multiple “tags” that are user defined. As a social bookmarks service, the del.icio.us website indicates how many other users have linked to a particular website address, and allows users to link to the social bookmarks of those other users. Social bookmarks can be an invaluable aid in student research projects, teacher technology workshops, and for personal use in keeping track of and sharing valuable Internet resources. The author’s social bookmarks are accessible at http://del.icio.us/wfryer. Since the del.icio.us site “speaks” RSS, any “tag” (topic) in a person’s social bookmarks can be syndicated / subscribed to using an aggregator like Bloglines. Sharing of website favorites/bookmarks has never been so easy, powerful, cheap and fast.

Online Rubric Construction: Advocates for project-based learning have been fans of rubric-based assessment for many years. The availability of free web-based rubric construction tools, like Rubistar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org), facilitate not only quick construction of personalized rubrics by teachers, but also the sharing of created rubrics with others. Copyright issues aside, we in the education field have long been known as organisms who readily borrow and steal good classroom teaching ideas when we see them. Services like Rubistar encourage and empower teachers to share their assessment ideas and strategies, and personify the nature of open information collaboration and sharing in the era of the read/write web.

Online Graphing Tools: Students at different educational levels are expected to not only understand and interpret graphs created by others, but also create their own graphs of data and explain the trends and implications of their graphic products to others. Microsoft Excel, included as part of the Office software package, has traditionally been the software tool of choice for most students and teachers graphing data in the classroom or at home. The US Department of Education has made a new resource available, however (http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph), that could alter this preference. This web-based graphing tool allows users (for free) to select a desired graph type, enter data, and then format the resulting graph as desired so it can be saved or printed for subsequent use. No special software is required, just a web browser and an Internet connection. This is the web 2.0 in action.

Online Digital Photo Tools: Creating a website gallery of images to share with friends, family, co-workers or classmates used to require specialized software and web publishing savvy, but this is no longer true. A myriad of digital photography websites have proliferated thanks to the boom in digital camera sales, and these free services offer users the ability to upload photos, edit them, organize photos into galleries, and share them with others as well as order paper-based copies of selected prints. Some of the popular services offering this functionality now include:

Flickr and Buzznet also allow the creation of photo blogs. In addition to these website services, other companies have web-enabled their digital photography software programs to tightly integrate with website services. Examples of these include iPhoto and .Mac for Macintosh users (www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto and www.mac.com) and Picassa (www.picasa.com) for Windows users, courtesy of our friends at Google.

Even more tools: All of the above read/write web technologies plus even more are available on the author’s social bookmarks page. Access it with your web browser from http://del.icio.us/wfryer/ReadWriteWebTools or subscribe to its RSS feed at http://del.icio.us/rss/wfryer/ReadWriteWebTools.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE READ/WRITE WEB FOR EDUCATION

Every Reader a Writer:[6] The process of acquiring literacy, in both the traditional and digital senses, requires time and sustained practice. As teachers, we want students to become not only proficient readers, but also communicators using written, oral, and technological modalities. By encouraging and supervising student use of web 2.0 communication technologies, teachers can help students authentically acquire the essential skills of the twenty-first century netizen through experiences and action.

Simplification and De-commercialization: A hallmark of the early phase of the World-Wide Web was its simplicity in both textual and later graphical content. Subsequent web standards have ushered in new complexities with cascading style sheets (CSS), required plug-in viewers, and other technologies, as well as a regrettable proliferation of distracting, Internet-based advertising. Web 2.0 technologies are, by contrast, simpler and far easier to both use and understand. In many cases, they offer the potential to access content / information without accompanying commercial advertisements. These developments are understandably welcomed by educators, fatigued by websites their students have been using filled with glitzy, distracting advertisements which further erode limited classroom instructional time spent on the computer.

Increased Idea Transparency: In a traditional classroom assignment, a student or group of students create a report for an audience of one: the teacher. When students publish their ideas on the global information network, however, fundamental changes are likely in both the ways students and teachers approach the assignment process. The results of student work are available for many to see and possibly critique, rather than just the teacher who assigned the task. This can raise the bar of expectations for student work, allow others to check work for quality, originality, and possible plagiarism, and increase student motivation levels since others (besides the classroom teacher) will be the ultimate audience for the created work.

Heightened Need for Safe Internet Practices: Read/Write web technologies remain limited as SIMPLY TOOLS, although they can appropriately be regarded as formidable and potent tools in a student’s or teacher’s toolbox of communication resources. The students in our junior high and high schools will remain adolescents, however, despite whatever the technological trend de jure happens to be. Incidents of cyberbullying, harassment of peers via technology tools running the gamut from handheld picture phones to laptop computers, and concerns about privacy and information disclosed to previous or potential child predators have taken place and will likely continue. Teachers, administrators, parents and community members must understand the importance of safe Internet practices. Everyone must work with the young people in their charge to insure that students do not disclose more information about themselves online than they should, that harassers and bullies are held accountable for their behavior whether it happens in a classroom or in cyberspace, and that the communities in which we live are marked by perceptions of safety and protection by citizens of all ages.

Greater Potential for Student-centered Education: Despite billions of dollars spent on educational technologies in past years and a large amount of official rhetoric about retooling curriculum to become more “student centered,” the vast majority of K-16 instruction remains highly teacher-directed, content centered, and didactic in nature. (In other words, we tend to still have extremely traditional classroom environments.) Recent national trends of high-stakes testing have generally been counter-productive with respect to the goal of advancing student-centered, project-based instruction. The availability of read/write web technologies offers exciting potential for educators wanting to transform the instructional environment into a more student-centered culture. Teachers wanting to serve more as facilitators of learning, rather than founts of knowledge, can utilize these technologies to further empower students to view themselves as authors and producers, not merely information consumers. Students can utilize these tools to acquire both traditional and digital literacy skills which will serve them well to not only demonstrate their mastery of expectations at the K-12 level, but also rise to the challenge of university and vocational work expectations after high school graduation.

Wesley Fryer is an educator, writer, and digital storyteller. In 2004, thanks to the benefits of web 2.0 publishing technologies, he transformed his free, periodic email newsletter about educational technology developments into a publicly accessible weblog. These free updates are available on http://bloglines.com/blog/wfryer.