If you are a regular reader, you’ll probably know that I think new technologies such as web applications and social networking should be more widely used in schools.
These tools are generally a) already widespread and b) designed to be intuitive and easy to use without previous experience. Just point and click. Drag and drop. Easy.
However, anyone who has attempted to use these so called Web 2.0 applications with a bunch of kids knows that things can go wrong and often they do. Lost account details, forgotten passwords, inappropriate content… the list goes on and it’s long enough to actually deter a good number of well-meaning teachers who see the whole thing as too much of a headache to bother with in the first place.
The lovely people who provide web applications for us free to use could, in an ideal world, make things a lot easier for teachers to manage students’ use.
The very first thing users often have to do is register an account. This task could be easily simplified by:
- Offer classroom/group registration. Some excellent web applications, like Voki or Xtranormal, don’t offer classroom support. They should. By ignoring the education market they are effectively marketing themselves out of a vast number of potential users and putting off teachers from using these tools with their classes.
- Improve classroom/group registration. Some other absolutely brilliant web applications, like Glogster or Diigo, do offer classroom/group support, however the registration system is made complicated by the fact that the application themselves generate the username and passwords, which often and up looking something like ≈€hjy0io?3 …and that’s just the username. Yes, users can go in and change some of their details afterwards, but it cannot be denied it is a recipe for lost passwords, forgotten usernames and, therefore, disruption in the classroom.
In my view, Edmodo has found the best way to register a classroom or group. Teachers are given a four or five digit group code – the same for the whole group – which students then input upon registration, thus linking their accounts (and yours) together yet allowing them to choose from the start their own usernames and passwords.
Foreign languages… what foreign languages?
- Improve foreign language support. As a foreign language teacher I am often frustrated by some applications’ inability to offer foreign character support – like ß, é, ñ, î . English is not the only language in the world people! Some websites, like Glogster, do offer limited foreign language support, but there is, in my opinion, ample room for improvement in this respect.
Other sites, like Storybird, offer foreign language support in terms of fonts but publishing restrictions are placed on Storybirds written in foreign languages because, they argue, these Storybirds cannot be understood and therefore cannot be moderated.This leads to teachers having to devise ludicrous workarounds to get their student’s materials published on the school blog.
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- Web 2.0 = here today, gone tomorrow. Given the nature of these applications, it is perhaps inevitable that there is a degree of uncertainty and lack of reliability in terms of these applications life spans. Comiqs is a great example of a tool with enormous educational potential which did not survive beyond its beta testing period. Shame.
However, other truly outstanding tools, like Animoto, started off with a visible educational element which now, although still apparently live, seems to have been buried deep in the recesses of their website. The application process to gain access to their education programme can take weeks, removing any spontaneity in the lesson planning process. All links to the education section from the home page seem to have been removed. Investment in education is often the first to go in tough times, I suppose. The trouble is that with it goes the potential exposure to future paying customers.
In short, using web applications in the classroom could should be made easy. I have met countless teachers who are willing but feel unsupported and who are open to use new ideas and but are worried about the possible ramifications.
Let’s keep thins simple. Let’s improve classroom support.
What do you think? Is there a web application which, in your opinion, could be improved for classroom support? If so, how?
Photo by jillwatson
This post is tagged useful websites, web 2.0, web applications
