In reading "Tapping the Tools of Teen Culture" from the Digital Divide Network I was reminded of teen culture.
As adults, we use new technologies for various reasons, in our personal lives and for our job, but these are hardly ever for the same reasons or ways in which teens use them.
In this article, Aaron Schmidt, talks about new technologies such as blogs, wikis, IM and provides some very good ideas to use the Web2.0 as a participatory tool from the teens' perspective.
It's a good read.....
2 comments:
I enjoyed this article! The part about connecting students and their library through IM was intriguing. The thought of students having a book talk through IM and even involving participants from outside their school community (students from another area) seems to be better than even blogging! Think about the impact on learning when ideas can be developed together online just as they would if everyone was in the same room! In addition, maybe that one student who doesn't like to speak up in front of crowds would feel safe enough to "speak up" online! Then after all is "said and done" for the IM book talk, the students would have written record of the entire discussion that could be printed and used for future reference! The learning power this offers sends my mind spinning! =)
I am so glad that article got your mind spinning about the non-traditional uses of communication tools.
I started using IM to teach small groups of learners while I was a grad assistant. It was great, and often impromptu. It began when 1 person requested me to walk them through a piece of software, then that person asked others to join in our sessions, and then more sessions were planned to learn more.... and being able to save the chat is an added resource for learners to go back over the 'chat.' So now 'meet me in IM' is just like meeting at the local coffee house...
Also I had a Curriculum Resource librarian where I used to work who also saw the use of IM in helping students learn- so when they were not at school, but at home or elsewhere, they could tap into her to "Ask the Librarian" questions...so IM is a useful learning tool! and free...
I also use IM as a meeting place for my online students...they know when I am online they can ask me questions and they can get answers immediately, instead of waiting for an email response...So one of the first tasks I do in setting up my classes is to exchange IM usernames and set-up a group IM for each class.
PS Yahoo now has Yahoo Web Messenger - so you don't have to download anything to a computer to be able to use IM...so check that one out- its nice!
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