Science 2.0?

From Web 2.0 to Math 2.0 to Science 2.0 -- Dave Powers, at his Do the Math blog, speculates on what Science 2.0 might look like in the classroom. He focuses on Web 2.0 tools that can help create the Science 2.0 classroom.

In his post "What Science 2.0 Could Look Like," Powers lists several free Web 2.0 tools that can be useful in a science classroom and one tool that he says is "worth the money." Powers' list includes:

• Google Spreadsheets, "a free way to create a collaborative data sheet to record the results found during an experiment" (you can tour Google Documents to see all the features)
  
• Slideshare which allows you to put Keynote and PowerPoint presentations online
• Google homepage for organizing RSS feeds and online discussions
• Wikispaces for Educators to make private or public wikis and "to create an online textbook, an online lab book, or a website for students to share links and to conduct discussions"
• Vimeo, a video-hosting service for "publishing student videos, teacher tutorials, and other video files" and where viewers can comment on videos
  
• Jing Project to capture screenshots and record video
  
• Bubbl.us, a concept mapping application similar to Inspiration for "map[ping] out the connections between science concepts such as the food chain or the water cycle"
• Diigo, a social bookmarking tool that lets you add sticky notes or highlighting to shared articles and websites
• Create a Graph for graph-making
  

And Powers feels that ed.VoiceThread is worth the price, about $60 for an account that can accommodate up to 100 students. ed.VoiceThread allows for multimodal presentation of results, experiments, research, or new findings. Students can also discuss at ed.VoiceThread. ed.VoiceThread is the K-12 version of the free VoiceThreads.

With so many resources available on the Web for learning, sharing and using findings and information, hopefully more science teachers will turn to the Web and Web 2.0 tools to stimulate and motivate their middle schoolers.

SOURCE: "What Science 2.0 Could Look Like" 04/07/08
photo courtesy of Stephen Barnett, used under this Creative Commons license

Dave Powers: Algebra 2.0

As middle school teachers and librarians integrate technology across the curriculum, challengers are presented in re-visualizing or reorganizing how content is delivered, reinforced and used by students and teachers. Dave Powers, math teacher at Wydown Middle School in Manchester, MO, is ready to push secondary math instruction into the School 2.0 era by actively trying to create a flat algebra classroom for the 2008-2009 school year.

Powers blogs at Do the Math where he explores "21st century teaching, 21st century learning, and 21st century math and science." In his recent post "Re-Organizing the Classes of School 2.0," Powers discusses a dilemma he faced in trying to create an online Algebra I text. It wasn't just a matter of how to organize the text, as in what came in what order on what page, but how to re-vision math instruction: "As I was brainstorming, I realized that this organization structure does not fit the new school 2.0 movement." The crux of his dilemma was finding free, quality algebra resources online. His proposal: to "universalize the organization of our school 2.0 content" with a flat-classroom-style project for algebra.

He has started a Flat Algebra I Classroom Textbook page (currently unavailable) and a Flat Algebra I Classroom Project wiki and discussions on his Classroom 2.0 page. The project is openly inspired by Vicki Davis' and Julie Lindsay's Flat Classroom Project. The unifying principle for The Flat Algebra I Classroom is that millions across the world are being taught or studying algebra at any moment which creates an incredible potential for collaboration and School 2.0 learning.

The initial steps are ongoing -- to recruit participating schools and teachers and then to create an idea for a project. The wiki page only started a month ago so only Powers' school is signed up right now. It will be exciting to track the progress of this project.

Is anyone else interested in flattening his or her algebra classroom? Would Powers be interested in collaborating with homeschoolers? I also wonder what Web 2.0 tools and technology Powers and his collaborators will use to bring their students and content together over the Web.

SOURCE: "Re-Organizing the Classes of School 2.0" 4/4/08
photo courtesy of .raindrops., used under this Creative Commons license