ELECTRICCHALK

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We’ve embarked on a project with some of our primaries recently to investigate using web2.0 applications for teaching and learning.

One thing that has come out even in the first few weeks is that actually, all is not as rosey as it could be. I’m becoming a bit more pragmatic when it comes to a vision of a web2.0 future.

Working in a City Learning Centre means that I’m lucky enough to have time to investigate new technologies and road test them before we use them with schools; not always possible if you teach for a living as well.  This time has been extremely useful when trialling excellent products like Animoto, Voicethread, Xtranormal, Glogster etc. No matter how good some of these apps are they require a bit of work to ensure that they can work well in an educational context.

Some apps make it easy for you. Glogster is a prime example. They have bent over backwards for the education community, creating a separate service that keeps sub-teens away from the more outre elements of their social networking platfom and makes it a cinch to register a class set of logins. They are also really attentive, a few exasperated moans about a glitch on Twitter were speedily met with responses from the Head of Business Development (@andrewconnelly) and their education specialist (@glogstereduman).

Animoto is also a stand out as they have a system for signing up temporary accounts (expire in 6 months) that give full access to the service.

Animoto could do a bit more for education, though. Having time limited accounts is actually a bit of a handicap when you have to keep applying to renew each one indivually. I created about 20 accounts for our various projects 6 months ago and have no way of renewing them as a batch, I have to re-apply for each one separately as far as I can see.

The Glogster model makes an educators life more easy. I can see why Animoto operates the way it does – it has to monetize its offering and having loads of full access, free accounts may sap vital revenue but also put a strain on servers.

But from some teachers’ point of view, these technical hold-ups may make the difference between engaging with this new technology or following the path of lesser resistance.

Given the range of resources available, creating separate accounts for each is likely to take up a huge amount of time. I know one solution is getting the students to choose the apps and get skilled at creating their own logins that they have responsibility. But for teachers who are testing the waters, that’s quite a brave step.

From a commercial point of view, surely getting students hooked on the technology in the classroom is free advertising.

Mind you, that’s an ethical humdinger right there! More thought required, Thomson!

Are you just starting using web2.0 in the classroom. How are you getting on?