Showing posts with label wikis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wikis. Show all posts

Wiki: Web Collaboration Review

Wiki: Web Collaboration
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Wiki: Web Collaboration ReviewWikis are an interesting experiment in collaborative effort on the Web. The best known example is of course Wikipedia. The authors cite this, but devote most of the text to explaining how to use MediaWiki and TWiki. Both have become popular for maintaining wikis, and are shown to be very easy to learn and use in a group effort.
Wikis have a notation all their own. But not too dissimilar to HTML, and just as easy to learn.
You can treat this book as a learner's manual for MediaWiki or TWiki. More generally, you might read it to see if your company or group should run its own Wiki, and the issues involved. The discussion is at a deeper technical level than elementary books on Wikis.Wiki: Web Collaboration OverviewWikis are Web-based applications that allow all users not only to view pages but also to change them. The success of the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia has drawn increasing attention from private users, small organizations and enterprises to the various possible uses of wikis.Their simple structure and straightforward operation make them a serious alternative to expensive content management systems and also provide a basis for many applications in the area of collaborative work. We show the practical use of wikis in carrying out projects for users as well as for maintainers. This includes a step-by-step introduction to wiki philosophy, social effects and functions, a survey of their controls and components, and the installation and configuration of the wiki clones MediaWiki, TWiki and Confluence. In order to exemplify the possibilities of the software, we use it as a project tool for planning a conference.

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Internet Research - Illustrated (Illustrated (Thompson Learning)) Review

Internet Research - Illustrated (Illustrated (Thompson Learning))
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Internet Research - Illustrated (Illustrated (Thompson Learning)) ReviewThe book is very low on information.
If you've used a computer for at least 2 years this will teach you absolutely nothing.
$20 for a paperback book that is thinner than a quarter.
Bought this for a class,
Be better off mooching off someone else or maybe just winging to topicInternet Research - Illustrated (Illustrated (Thompson Learning)) OverviewWith both conceptual and step-by-step lessons, this book teaches learners the strategies and skills required to use the Internet as a valuable research tool. Updated for currency, this title includes information about search toolbars and the latest advances in intelligent search agents, as well as finding, evaluating, and citing online sources.

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The Social Factor: Innovate, Ignite, and Win through Mass Collaboration and Social Networking Review

The Social Factor: Innovate, Ignite, and Win through Mass Collaboration and Social Networking
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The Social Factor: Innovate, Ignite, and Win through Mass Collaboration and Social Networking ReviewFour signs that you are seriously behind the Internet-driven times: 1) You type "www" in front of Web addresses, 2) You think "geek" is a term of derision, 3) You subscribe to TV Guide and 4) You have a landline. If these descriptions fit you, then you will find Maria Azua's book eye-opening. She describes online developments such as wikis, cloud computing, crowdsourcing, widgets, social bookmarking, folksonomies, avatars and all the rest - and explains what they can do for your business. However, if you are already an experienced social networker, Azua's guide will be a review of familiar information. getAbstract recommends this book to businesspeople who are feeling mystified by the Internet - that is, anyone who needs to update his or her Web skills. Online, it's a new world. Azua's book provides a good map.The Social Factor: Innovate, Ignite, and Win through Mass Collaboration and Social Networking OverviewHarness the Power of Social Networking to Promote Innovation and Drive GrowthA treasure trove of strategic and tactical insights for the business leader

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RSS for Educators: Blogs, Newsfeeds, Podcasts, and Wikis in the Classroom Review

RSS for Educators: Blogs, Newsfeeds, Podcasts, and Wikis in the Classroom
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RSS for Educators: Blogs, Newsfeeds, Podcasts, and Wikis in the Classroom ReviewWhatever happened to Web 1.0? Readers of John Hendron's (2008) book, RSS for Educators, will quickly realize the speed at which web technology has evolved. From its humble Web 1.0 beginnings of one-way, read-only applications on the information highway, we now have two-way, read-write RSS (Really Simple Syndication) apps and tools in a new revolutionary freeway of innovations of computer commuters networked by information using blogs, podcasts, newsfeeds, and wikis. This can be about everything, be from anywhere, happen everywhere, and on all kinds of devices (Wesch, 2008)
For someone who has an older one-way computer background, John Hendron's book is an eye-opener not only for techies, but also especially for educators who must merge into the new-era of Web 2.0 information travels. The new features of this highway are succinctly defined with helpful diagrams picturing Client/Server/Local User paradigms to help us understand where we are located in this interactive information highway called the Internet. For someone who had little background on Web 2.0, this book was very readable with new technologies clearly explained. Much of the author's discussion of blogs, wikis, etc. seamlessly interact with his classroom experience as a teacher and liaison to district administrators and parents, in bringing them together to experience and benefit from the slew of technologies available to help them communicate and better education.
The strength of the book is in its balance of presenting Web 2.0 technologies in a readable but also very technical fashion. Teachers can quickly make progress by using the recommended websites to start blog accounts, wikis, etc. A brief range of the most popular and powerful technologies are presented for the consumer to choose from depending on his/her situation. Whether it is blogs, wikis, podcasts, VoIP, or newsfeeds, the author usually surveys the most effective tools, always giving attention to both platforms, whether it is PC or Macintosh. His only weakness is his unhidden bias for Macs. However, the detail of his interaction with the technology is fair. His treatment of these is up-to-date and current.
In relation to Wikis, John gives helpful examples of using wikis for department meetings, notes, minutes, and even curriculum development. Here is where the "Ah Haa" moments echo where he provides specific uses of wikis from his own educational experience. The technology of Web 2.0 is not confined to the classroom, but transcended by things like videoconferencing, and also usable in teacher business as well as district business. The two-way roads of technology are expanding to the many facets of education.
When it comes to blogging, the author adequately surveys the popular blog resources available to begin web 2.0 applications. Again, both PC and Macintosh platforms are represented. The section does seem overly technical for educators, but as an educator with computer background, I found it very helpful. What I appreciate about Hendron's treatment is the balance of adequate technical help with the creativity of the Web 2.0 applications. Especially eye-opening were the classroom lesson plans using blogging technology to accomplish educational objectives. What administrator would not drop his/her jaw to see this kind of technology used in the classroom to engage and bring much needed collaboration to the classroom using technology? The lessons were replete with collaborative ideas using engaging technology. The only criticism is that the lesson plans did not include a single math lesson. This reviewer is a secondary math teacher.
In the final analysis, the esoteric technical title of the book is actually a rich and readable ride into the revolutionary Web 2.0 technology of not the future, but the present. It's explained clearly across both platforms and surveyed across the most popular tools. This is an excellent primer on information travel for Web 2.0.
RSS for Educators: Blogs, Newsfeeds, Podcasts, and Wikis in the Classroom OverviewA powerful technology, but a simple concept, RSS ('Really Simple Syndication') makes it possible to easily access frequently updated content on the Internet. RSS allows you to 'subscribe' to content and have updates automatically delivered to your computer. Many Web 2.0 tools, including blogs, podcasts, and wikis, have been made even more useful with the advent of RSS technology.
Let expert John Hendron show you how to use a news aggregator to harness the power of RSS for a variety of purposes, including classroom projects, professional development, and keeping students and parents informed.
* Learn how to use free and inexpensive software such as Garage Band and Audacity to manipulate audio files and create podcasts.
* Explore the pros and cons of various blogging platforms.
* Have your students blog, and use RSS to deliver their assignments to you automatically.
With RSS and the Read/Write Web, the possibilities are endless.
A glossary and an extensive list of online resources round out this essential guide to the power of Web syndication.
Topics include:
-Web 2.0-technology integration-curriculum design-curriculum design-blogs-wikis-newsfeeds-podcasts-professional development
Also available:
Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools - ISBN 1564842347 Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education - ISBN 1564842479
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the trusted source for professional development, knowledge generation, advocacy and leadership for innovation. ISTE is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. Home of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), the Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET), and ISTE's annual conference (formerly known as the National Educational Computing Conference, or NECC), ISTE represents more than 100,000 professionals worldwide. We support our members with information, networking opportunities, and guidance as they face the challenge of transforming education.
Some of the areas in which we publish are: -Web. 2.0 in the classroom-RSS, podcasts, and more-National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) -Professional development for educators and administrators-Integrating technology into the classroom and curriculum-Safe practices for the Internet and technology-Educational technology for parents

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MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide: Install, manage, and customize your MediaWiki installation Review

MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide: Install, manage, and customize your MediaWiki installation
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MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide: Install, manage, and customize your MediaWiki installation ReviewAlthough a comparison cannot be made, because of the lack of competition (discarding the online help at MediaWiki.org) the MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide is a good and must have reference for anyone working with MediaWiki as administrator but also as user, offering almost anything one would want to know to start off with, to maintain and to customise and even hack a wiki installation. For those wanting to go a bit further with writing real PHP code for creating extensions, custom wiki markup and special pages, the book offers some nice code examples to work with and to modify to one's needs.
The book could have benefited from somewhat richer content, such as more references to additional sources on the Internet and especially something like break-out boxes presenting experiences from admins of major wiki real life implementations. Next to that it appears that some more time should have been spend on a better index, correcting language, typos and structuring in general.
My book rating: 8
To summarise: the pros and cons
Pros:
+ Almost everything you will need for a basic MediaWiki installation, its maintenance and some customisation is available in this book. It is a complete reference for admins but certainly also for users, that would like some basic understanding of MediaWiki.
+ Very nice and easy to grasp examples of skin customisation and creation (I am no PHP expert!).
+ Good example on creating an article rating system extension and accompanying special page. With this knowledge and some additional PHP you will be able to try out a couple of your extension idea's quite easily I guess.
+ There is a nice bonus chapter (11) presenting 7 extensions and some support on how to install them.
+ A book is so much easier than an online source! Of course this is not a pro for this book per se, but for others as well.
Cons:
+ Missing 1: some practical case studies of real life MediaWiki implementations and preferably interviews with the admins of the practise of maintaining a wiki
+ Missing 2: More attention to anti-vandalism tools out there, dedicated to preventing rather than cleaning-up.
+ Missing 3: A good index: the index at the end of the book is way too brief to be of real value for someone trying to find something back in the book.
+ Missing 4: Too little in-text references and no references section in the book, for further reading or information, like most important forums for those looking for help (like the MediaWiki Mailing List Archive and MWusers.com).
+ Sometimes the English used suggests a lack of some decent editorial oversight (or shall I call it charming?)
+ Chapter 1, describing wiki's in relation to weblogs, forums and CMS systems and the position in Web 2.0 is not really convincing. Furthermore, although alternative wiki systems are briefly mentioned, no real and "honest" comparison is made.
+ Images and tables are not numbered, which is not good for readability.
+ The typographical distinction between paragraph and sub-paragraph could have been better
MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide: Install, manage, and customize your MediaWiki installation OverviewThis book covers the open-source MediaWiki wiki engine from installation and getting started through structuring your collaborative website, advanced formatting, images, multimedia, security, and managing users to backing up, restoring, and migrating your installation and creating new MediWiki templates. The author, Mizanur Rahman, is a Senior Software Engineer at ReliSource Technologies. The book has a fast-paced, friendly tutorial style and uses a fun example to teach all of MediaWiki's key features. This book is for competent computer users who want to run MediaWiki. They should have some knowledge of HTML and have used a wiki before. No PHP knowledge is required for most of the book, although some chapters at the end include some PHP code.

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The Digital Diet: Today's Digital Tools in Small Bytes Review

The Digital Diet: Today's Digital Tools in Small Bytes
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The Digital Diet: Today's Digital Tools in Small Bytes ReviewIn their book, The Digital Diet- Today's Digital Tools in Small Bytes, authors Churches, Crockett, and Jukes have empowered everyone from the most naïve of digital immigrants (like myself) to veteran "techies" (like most of my student teachers) for effectively using technology to foster productive learning in the classroom. In pragmatic, down-to-earth, 1-2-3 directions they have garnered the essence of major technological tools and presented them to learners (students and teachers) in an efficient, graduated way. They offer the latest strategies to help engage students in their own learning through various tools readily available and easily accessible on the internet.
The book's blueprint is excellent - provide the essential vocabulary, explain through both graphics and words in a common sense manner, deliver a well-thought-out rubric aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy, and provide resources for further study. Each chapter ends with follow-up questions, which can be used for individual reflection or group discussion.
Their guiding principles for what it means to be a responsible, ethical digital user should be required knowledge for every member of the internet society! This book is deceptively simple in its design and monumental in its impact. I've spend the entire week-end following up on their suggestions and can honestly say, "I'm hooked!!"
As someone who works with teachers and administrators on a daily basis, I can wholeheartedly assure both novice and veteran educators that this book is worth your time and money. It simplifies the mysteries of teaching to the digital learner and challenges us to view students as partners in their own learning! It is empowering, informative, and most of all -- useful!
--Debbie Silver, Ed.D. (teacher, author, consultant, speaker)The Digital Diet: Today's Digital Tools in Small Bytes OverviewUnderstanding today's online world and relating to the digital generation can be a daunting process for the newcomer. Readers are invited to feast on a tantalizing buffet of the various kinds of digital fare such as blogs, wikis, social networking and podcasting."The Digital Diet" supplies an entertaining commentary on the basics of understanding many of the most popular online programs in use today. In addition, it gives in-depth guidance for more advanced users, and also demonstrates how these versatile and user-friendly applications can be utilized in today's classroom to foster enjoyable and productive learning.

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The Digital Writing Workshop Review

The Digital Writing Workshop
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The Digital Writing Workshop ReviewThis is the book that every English teacher in America should be reading. Troy Hicks takes the traditional writer's workshop, introduced by well-known educators, such as, Donald Graves and Nancie Atwell, and reinvents it to include the all important digital element.
On page 5, Hicks discusses the purpose of his book, which relates to the obvious changes in technology; he explains how to create a writing workshop that goes beyond paper and pencil to implement a workshop that emphasizes 21st Century skills. Hicks addresses RSS, blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and he provides a companion website to support the book at the Digital Writing Workshop Ning.
I love that Hicks discusses how to introduce NPR's This I Believe series into the classroom. His ideas, thoughts, and rubrics are more than enough reason to buy this book. If your high school is not implementing this writing assignment at some level in your school, I highly suggest that you visit the website and buy Hick's book to discover why it is a keeper.
The most important element that Hicks brings up is on page 104 when he discusses why we are missing the point when we assign digital projects as assignments. Is the font, the colors, or even the number of slides used, make a project relevant? None of this really assesses whether a student can effectively create a worthy digital product. As an English teacher who understands that digital elements and images are connected to words on a deeper level than just using the required number of pictures in the slides, I know this is true, but assessing and creating a rubric is difficult. The Digital Writing Workshop demonstrates not only how to use new technologies, but also provides teachers with charts of effective digital writing. If you have just purchased this book, turn to page 115 to figure 6.2 to see what I mean.
I have used wikis and nings with my students, but this is the first year I have ventured into letting my students support their own personal blog. Hicks created a Blogger's Matrix that includes assessments for teachers to use with student bloggers in the classroom. I plan to incorporate these assessments into my classroom.
I was excited to find a book called The Digital Writing Workshop. The title alone inspired me, and I knew that this would be a book that would be an invaluable resource in my classroom.The Digital Writing Workshop OverviewWe believe new technologies can advance both the teaching and learning of writing. The National Commission on Writing in American Schools and Colleges, The Neglected R : The Need for a Writing Revolution, 2003.Years later and we re still waiting to see how it can really be done.THE WAIT IS OVER. In clean, clear prose that unravels the labyrinth of new terms and applications, Troy guides us towards a writing workshop for this age. His steady, smart advice eases the transition between the elements of writing workshop we know matter to the tools that can take each to a new place, one comfortably familiar, but with a decidedly updated feel. And this man has his priorities straight. He focuses first on the writer, then on the writing, and lastly on the technology. -Penny Kittle Author of Write Beside ThemTroy Hicks holds sight on good writing workshop instruction. Where others have talked about new technologies and how they change writing, Hicks shows you how to use new technologies to enhance the teaching of writing you already do. Chapters are organized around the familiar principles of the writing workshop: student choice, active revision, studying author s craft, publication beyond the classroom, and assessment of both product and process. In each chapter you ll learn how to expand and improve your teaching by smartly incorporating new technologies like wikis, blogs, and other forms of multimedia. Throughout, you ll find reference to resources readily available to you and your class online. He also includes a practical set of lessons for how to use wikis to explore a key concept in digital writing: copyright. New literacies are developing around us at what sometimes seems like the speed of light. It s hard to keep it all in focus. Let Troy Hicks guide you through the complexities of what it all means for your classroom so your students writing can grow right in step with our changing times and technologies.

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Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges Review

Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges
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Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges ReviewWriting this review has been is one of the hardest things I have had to do. I wanted to like this book, it's a great subject, a knowledgeable an author and great prior reviews. Unfortunately this book does not deliver making this review tough to put together. I would not suggest using this book to introduce Web 2.0 to the business. I know that this review may draw some heat from the other reviewers but here are the reasons behind my review and why I recommend reading McAfee's HBR article rather than investing the time in this book.
The book covers an important topic and a critical time in its formation. What is the impact of social computing technologies like Wiki's, blogs and other forms of social media. McAfee defines Enterprise 2.0 as the use of emergent social software platforms by organization s in pursuit of their goals. (p.71) McAfee says that Enterprise 2.0 is not primarily a technology issue. This is not born out in the text as majority of the book spends time defining the technology behind E 2.0 (chapter 3 and 4) and the capabilities provided by the technology (chapter 5).
McAfee treats E 2.0 technology at a high level. Its is as if, McAfee does not believe a business person would be interested in how the technology works, which makes the web 2.0 technologies seem trivial. If McAfee had expanded the view of technology to include the integration of business processes and information with these technologies he could have provided powerful business based descriptions.
McAfee intended to write a business book about Enterprise 2.0 but he concentrates the vast majority of pages on emergent social software platforms (ESSP). There is little discussion of the business impact of the software, how it applies to major business processes or activities and how these platforms change the way business work at a strategic, market, financial, product, organizational or operational areas. These are all questions business executives have and they are not treated sufficiently in this book. This is one reason why I would not suggest using this book as a platform for launching new social software initiatives.
Business books relies on case studies to illustrate their points and while McAfee has case studies from Google, Serena Software, the CIA, and Vista Print which should provide a solid foundation. However, the cases talk about how these people implemented Espy's in a generic fashion saying that company A implemented a blog to solve their problem. Only the description of Google's adoption of predictive markets constitutes a strong case. The limited use of practical or detailed examples is puzzling, as it does not give the reader access to McAfee's experience and insight.
McAfee further weakens his argument as the book draws on academic frameworks outside of E 2.0 and technology to answer critical issues. Normally, this is where a strong case study would illustrate how people have addressed these challenges. However, McAfee chooses strong academics including discussion of theories of Granovetter (Strength of Weak Ties), Hayek and Harford (Theory of Knowledge), Gourville (Behavioral economics and slow rates of adoption) to make his points. This unfortunately weakens the book's business impact and credibility. Not that the ideas of these thought leaders are weak, its just that they give the book a stronger academic feel than other business books. While the case studies are a good touch, the examples involve implementing relatively generic web 2.0 a wiki for one, a blog for another. While the cases do discuss the results achieved, the cases would have been stronger if the case studies provided more detail about how the cases used these technologies to achieve these results.
Finally the book seems to be stitched together from three separate research pieces. The best part of the book is actually the final chapter. It describes the book that I believe you should have read as it hints at the business, financial and other issues opened by Enterprise 2.0. The tone, content and focus of the final chapter is distinctly different from the rest of the work. If the whole book could have been like the last chapter this would have been one of the best business books of the last three years.
The first five chapters of the book are more descriptive of the phenomenon and suffer from McAfee's desire to assert his brand of the terms Enterprise 2.0 and ESSP. This assertion comes from his frequent use of the first person to define and drive the book forward, I believe this or I see that. This weakens the book and gives it a self-referential style that does not go over well with a business audience.
In chapters six and seven the book branches off into a discussion of the business value of IT and refuting Nicholas Carr's IT doesn't matter argument. This part comes out of the blue and discuses IT in general rather than the specifics of how ESSP changes the definition of IT and its role in the enterprise. Another opportunity lost in my estimation.
The introduction of Web 2.0 and social software into enterprises is a significant opportunity for every organization. This book has the potential to introduce business to these technologies in much the same way that Hammer and Champy set the stage for re-engineering, or Negroponte and the internet. However after thinking about this review for more than a week, I felt that the book does not do this and I cannot recommend it as the way of introducing ESSP's to the enterprise. I do not intent to criticize the author, his knowledge or his experience as I am sure that McAfee knows more about how to make this technology work to create value, it just did not show in this book. Sorry to offer a different view on this book, but I hope that you can see the reasons behind this review.Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges Overview"Web 2.0" is the portion of the Internet that's interactively produced by many people; it includes Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and prediction markets. In just a few years, Web 2.0 communities have demonstrated astonishing levels of innovation, knowledge accumulation, collaboration, and collective intelligence. Now, leading organizations are bringing the Web's novel tools and philosophies inside, creating Enterprise 2.0. In this book, Andrew McAfee shows how they're doing this, and why it's benefiting them. Enterprise 2.0 makes clear that the new technologies are good for much more than just socializing-when properly applied, they help businesses solve pressing problems, capture dispersed and fast-changing knowledge, highlight and leverage expertise, generate and refine ideas, and harness the wisdom of crowds. Most organizations, however, don't find it easy or natural to use these new tools initially. And executives see many possible pitfalls associated with them. Enterprise 2.0 explores these concerns, and shows how business leaders can overcome them. McAfee brings together case studies and examples with key concepts from economics, sociology, computer science, consumer psychology, and management studies and presents them all in a clear, accessible, and entertaining style. Enterprise 2.0 is a must-have resource for all C-suite executives seeking to make technology decisions that are simultaneously powerful, popular, and pragmatic.

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High-Tech Teaching Success A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Innovative Technology in Your Classroom Review

High-Tech Teaching Success A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Innovative Technology in Your Classroom
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High-Tech Teaching Success A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Innovative Technology in Your Classroom ReviewHigh-Tech Teaching Success tells teachers how to bring technology into the classroom, offering keys to using Google Earth, blogs, digital diaries, Facebook and other popular online sites in the teaching process. From classroom web sites to digital teaching, this is an excellent review of how technological opportunities can integrate into any classroom teacher's objectives.
High-Tech Teaching Success A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Innovative Technology in Your Classroom Overview
An easy-to-use guide to implementing the most exciting technologies to energize any classroom, High-Tech Teaching Success!: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Innovative Technology in Your Classroom gives classroom teachers exactly what they're looking for: advice from technology education experts on how the latest tools and software can be implemented into lesson plans to create differentiated, exciting curriculum for all learners.

Focused on implementing technology in the four core areas of learning—math, science, language arts, and social studies—this book covers topics like podcasting, blogging and digital diaries, building Web sites and Wikis, creating Web Quests, using Google Earth, using online programs like YouTube and social networking sites to connect to other classrooms, creating videos, and more.

Geared for teachers in grades 4–8, this essential book offers practical tools, tips for implementation, step-by-step instructions, and handy screen shots to give educators everything they need to create interesting, technology-based learning experiences in their classrooms.

Features lessons developed by top educators covering Google Earth, YouTube, wikis, WebQuests, and much more
Includes screen shots and easy-to-follow directions for using each technology tool
Suggests innovative ways of implementing tools like website design, podcasts, social networking, and blogging
Gives teachers an overview and advice on implementing the latest exciting technology tools


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Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms Review

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
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Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms ReviewNote: while there are some spoilers here, I will deliberately LEAVE THINGS OUT so you will have no choice to read his great book. I could not put it down and I learned so much, even though I've been Podcasting since September and Blogging (sort of) for two years.
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson is a great resource for any teacher or instructional technologist who wants to integrate technology into the classroom. Will begins by quoting Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web - the vision was that it was a "read-write web" - with web users not only collecting information but creating it as well. In his book, Will gives many examples of how to do this:
Blogs: great for class portals, an online filing cabinet, e-portfolios... but better: a collaborative space for students and teachers to react to questions and scenarios - all online where Will has arranged for his students to meet authors or students from other schools to discuss a topic. Student writing becomes authentic, relevant. Will recommends that teachers blog themselves before introducing blogs to their students (just like a teacher of writing should be a writer himself, or a reading teacher should read on her own). Will dedicates an entire chapter to "getting started" with blogs - with juicy tips and tricks, as well as resources for new bloggers.
Wikis: after a discussion of the origin of the wiki (wiki-wiki - Hawaiian for "quick") and a discussion of the most well-known wiki, Wikipedia, Will discusses the uses for wikis in school: you can create an online text for your classroom, a lesson plan exchange for teachers, and he gives a good introduction to creating your own wiki using PBWiki.
RSS: OK- this is where my brain began to melt. I was blown away by the difference between what I THOUGHT RSS was good for and all of the ideas that Will has for them. To quote his chapter on RSS: "I think it's the one technology that you should start using today, right now, this minute. And tomorrow, you should teach your students to use it." After reading this chapter I did, and I will. Seriously. This chapter was an epiphany for me.
Podcasts: amateur radio, with lots of possibilities. There are many resources given in his book but the Education Podcast Network is the best known and a great place to start. Will gives some great tips on software to use like Audacity - and how to use Skype to record interviews (using software from http://www.powergramo.com ).
I hate to sound like PBS's Reading Rainbow, but if you want to find out more, you really should buy and read his book. It is very well written, organized, and is an invaluable resource for any teacher willing to try technology in their classroom.Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms OverviewWith updated research and links, the second edition shows educators at all levels and disciplines how to use digital tools to create relevant, interactive learning experiences.

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