Nick Dennis and I are at the Schools History Project (SHP) conference this weekend presenting workshops with the above title. This post is both for the information of people attending the workshop (there will be no handouts) and for regular readers of this blog for general interest! :D

If you want to jump straight in and find an application/service mentioned during the workshop, head over to the Directory.

1. We started by introducing ourselves. Nick Dennis has his student-focused site at helloeverybody.co.uk (because he’s Dr. Nick – think Simpsons…), but is yet to start ‘proper blogging’! ;) You can find out more about me, unsurprisingly, on the About page. We met ‘virtually’ via the Schoolhistory.co.uk Forum before meeting in real life at the SHP Conference a couple of years ago. I was astounded to find Nick wasn’t a scrawny white guy as suggested by his avatar… ;)

2. First off we discussed what Web 2.0 actually means and the possibilities for educators. We were inspired by this site, which gave us the following list:

• Web 1.0 was about them, Web 2.0 is about us
• Web 1.0 was about reading, Web 2.0 is about writing
• Web 1.0 was about companies, Web 2.0 is about communities
• Web 1.0 was about advertising, Web 2.0 is about word of mouth
• Web 1.0 was about portals, Web 2.0 is about RSS
• Web 1.0 was about taxonomy, Web 2.0 is about folksonomy
• Web 1.0 was about home pages, Web 2.0 is about blogs
• Web 1.0 was information, Web 2.0 is opinion
• Web 1.0 was an encyclopedia, Web 2.0 is Wikipedia

3. Nick then introduced the learning problems we addressed, namely:

• How can I engage learners?
• How do I encourage learners to collaborate?
• How could I promote learning beyond the four walls of my classroom?
• How can I ensure students have materials that are directly relevant to their course?
• How do I collaborate with educators across the world for professional development?

These were not addressed in a point-by-point fashion. Rather, they guided what we discussed in the following sections. :)

4. Using Splashr (which I’ve mentioned before), I gave an overview of the types of applications we have used, such as:

• Flickr – to share coursework-related pictures/photographs
• Google Video – to enable students to watch video clips you don’t have time for in lessons/for homework
• Bubbl.us – for learners to mindmap – and hence plan – assignments, etc. (we used this, Google Docs and Skype/regular phone calls to plan the workshop)
• Audacity – to create podcasts
• Pageflakes – to create a custom start page for students with elements directly relevant to their course (I also mentioned iGoogle)
• Twitter – send updates to learners’ mobile phones without knowing their phone numbers (I’ve posted about this here)

5. As Nick’s done a lot more podcasting than me (despite my multi-part guide) he demonstrated how to create a podcast using Audacity (cross-platform) and Garageband (Mac only). Whilst he went through the ins and outs of podcasting, I uploaded the recorded MP3 to learning.mrbelshaw.co.uk to show how easy it is.

***Update: Ben Walsh quite rightly pointed out that to export a recording to MP3 you need to install an additional plugin. This is an easy and straightforward procedure. Go here for more information.***

There are some good guides to podcasting using Garageband on the Apple website:

• Podcasting in Education
• Creating your own podcast

Nick explained how a podcast is different from just an MP3 file on a website. Which brought us nicely onto the next point about blogs, wikis, etc.

6. I proceeded to discuss the benefits of having a blog to communicate with your students (see learning.mrbelshaw.co.uk), along with a simple definition of RSS (see the BBC’s website for good one). I mentioned how easy it is to update a blog and how Edublogs.org means you don’t have to install your own. You might find my post on getting students blogging useful.

The discussion proceeded to student blogging and my Year 10 History students blogging their homework (learning.mrbelshaw.co.uk/blogs). They can also use Edublogs, or something like WordPress.com or similar.
Moving onto wikis, I discussed the GCSE History wiki I set up for my Year 10 History students. They can edit any page apart from those I ‘lock’ (mainly just the navigation pages) – which means they can colloborate both within lessons and at home. I’ve a couple of posts which you might find useful: Setting up a teaching and learning wiki, and Taking the wiki plunge…

7. We rounded things off by stressing the importance of sharing your work so that the wheel does not have to be re-invented by others. We came full-circle back to the Schoolhistory.co.uk Forum as a hotbed for sharing ideas and collaboration, along with mentioning historyshareforum.com and the NextGen Teachers Social Network.

We’d very much like to receive comments, both from those who attended the workshops and those who didn’t! :p