Chapter 6: The Social Web

I love that in the beginning of this chapter Richardson says "whether it's blogs or wikis or RSs, all roads now point to a web where little is done in isolation and all things are collaborative and social in nature" (emphasis added, page 85). One goal that I have with my students is to open up the world to them. I teach in a pretty homogeneous school, and I am constantly looking for ways to open up the diverse world to them.

I have personally used a wiki in my AP World History course for the last year. I found that my students were initially reluctant to post to the wiki, then increasingly posted more as time when on. My goal is to use wikis again next year, but encourage more peer to peer participation.

One portion of this chapter that I was particularly interested in was Twitter. I have never used Twitter, but what I knew about it prior to this chapter made me think that it was pretty unneccessary. In general, I am a one stop shopper. Also, I felt like I didn't really care what Oprah tweeted, and it was a total waste of my time. After reading this chapter, I was excited to see that some schools were using Twitter for formulative assessment. This is something that I would be interested in doing, if only our school didn't forbid the use of cell phones.

Another portion of this chapter and our multimedia course that I was deeply interested in was learning about Diigo. I have personally never used Diigo, but I am very excited about the possibilities. It seems like a great way to assign homework to a website reading and give directions to remind students what to do on a webquest, instead of using paper directions that students could forget to bring home for homework (as long as they have Internet access outside of school).

One thought that continuously crossed my mind while reading this chatper is that all of these social web devises are great, as long a you do something with them. The image of the teacher who keeps every single page of professional development information but never does anything with them comes to mind. As long as we pace ourselves and take them one step at a time, the social web will be immensely beneficial.