[MUSIC] Web 2.0 is a term that encompasses the way that online social media tools are enabling users to communicate, collaborate and generate dynamic content in social networks. Lubna Alam from the University of Canberra describes how she uses Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, Wikis and Twitter. To improve student engagement in a face to face class, Lubna describes the pedagogy behind this process, and outlines the benefits that Web 2.0 technologies can bring to student learning. >> The class that I'm teaching is called Social Informatics. Social informatics is about, technology impact. So how does technology impact at society level. We have both face to face component and we also have the online Web 2.0 tools integrated within the unit. Web 2.0 is a set of tools, emerging tools, that people are using to interact with each other. >> We basically use three different tools in our class. We use blog and we use a WIki site, and we use also Twitter. >> I was using these tools in the unit as a way of actually looking at how they can question the value of these tools by actually using these tools themselves. This is the subject Moodle site for the social informatics. I have integrated the external social media into the Moodle site. This way, when you come into the Moodle site you can see the latest blog posts, you can see the latest Tweets, and they come as feeds. [BLANK_AUDIO] So this is the unit blog site. It uploads all the tutorials for each week. >> We use the blog to look at tutorial exercises and comment on each other's work. Sometimes also we're asked to blog about different topics related to the subject matter raised in a lecture. >> All of these units students are here, so if you click on one of them it will take you to their own blogs, and you can see the blogs he's made and some of the comments he's received. The other way we use the blog site is to archive all the tweets, because tweets are transient. So we use the block press archive to do this. Because the subject domain is interested in to Web 2.0 tools and Government 2.0 tools, we follow other people blogs as well and that feed also comes in. >> A wiki is a collaborative tool that lets you contribute to a content. The way that we have used this in this unit is to two ways: first, they could use it for lectures. >> In the lecture section, we are also encouraged to provide extra information or extra resources that are also helpful. >> So students can click on the page operations, and then edit. And it takes them to the edit mode. And they contribute to the, you know, relevant sections whenever they see this please contribute or add comments, they can add it and then just click the save button. Secondly, we'll use it in tutorial as well. They could use it to summarize something they have read and the shared the relevant concepts from there, for the unit. I've used a carrot and I say that you could take the Wiki to the exam. And this has given the students some if you like, interest to populate the Wiki, with the, in a relevant content and contribute so that they can actually use this in the exam situation. Twitter is a 140 character micro-blogging you know, tool. I think the reason it works because it's just, it is just like an SMS style communication. We have used a hashtag. The hashtag lets you follow a certain topic, and if you search by the hashtag, you get to see all the tweets for the subject. Tweets have been used in I think three different ways. One way is to share information, show something they've read they want to share it with the others. They have used it to bring in links to other sources. And then they have also used to talk to me so the students have actually used the @ Lubna Alam to get my attention. >> What we do is basically we tweet about the lecture contents and if we have any, you know, comments on someone's tweet, we can just comment back. I use my smart phone, which I have the application on it, or you can find other students who can use their laptops and tweet about the lecture contents. >> I use the tweet chat to watch a hashtag in real time, and this has helped a lot with face to face debates that we run in the tutorial sessions. >> It is just an open discussion, and everybody has the right to express their own thoughts, and it is on us, what we take from the discussion, that our point was valid, or did we learn more. Was everybody agreeing to the point? So at the, at the end of the day it is nobody losing. It is all of us winning in some way or the other. >> I think the biggest benefit of using these tools is the ability for students to collaborate and communicate with each other, especially also sharing information, sharing the experience. >> I've seen students more engaged using these tools because they knew each other better. They could interact outside the hours of the class time we had. >> You can Tweet any questions or anything, any queries to your lecture any time. >> They could share the references, they could share their views on the issues, and then they could have the students helping each other there as well. >> They've given every student, or every person a lot more space to express their own opinions. >> The major outcome to peer learning, it's just learning from each other and sharing this information. >> When you're using Web 2.0 tools, there is a set of Pedagogy 2.0 principles that are available. So you really need to think of your strategies that how you will integrate these tools for learning. And then of course if you're using it in assessment, how we will integrate this into assessment as well. You have to understand the limitations so that when you're using them into the unit, you know when things could go wrong, when you need to really tell the students how these tools work and how they can actually use it to get the value out of them. The best way to learn about these tools is just to use them, and use them professionally so that you get value out of them, because then only you can start to see how they can be valuable to your students. I think as a teacher, if you are using Web 2.0 tools, there is an expectation that you will be available 24 hours, seven days a week. So on the onset, in the very first lecture you have to set some ground rules. There cannot be any expectations of immediate feedback. Having said that, because I'm a user of these tools myself, I do check it regularly. Some of the students will pick up these tools, and they will just you know, start to use this as if they have been using it for a while. But for other students you will have to help them out. >> At the beginning, like for the first three weeks, I had this problem managing all these tools and remembering the passwords and remembering the usernames and, you know, contributing to each one of them. >> They found it difficult to understand some of the benefits of these tools. For example, Twitter is not quite intuitive, you know, as like Facebook, so they found difficult, how do you follow hashtag? Why would you follow a hashtag? How do you talk to each other using a hashtag? So what does the @ Lubna Alam actually means? How does a reply work? The students were quite overwhelmed, if you like, with this new ways of communicating. So, having a set of training material, having information sessions, help sessions, and the constant, if you like, assistance, is required to get them used to these tools. To me, Web 2.0 tools are about people. It's about communication, it's about sharing. Today's students are tomorrow's citizen 2.0. So, they need to be able to use these digital tools to participate, if you like, in democratic activities and become participatory citizens. [BLANK_AUDIO]
