CEdO535 - Week 5: Twitter, Podcasts and Facebook

This week's assignments had us look at podcasting/screencasting, using facebook and getting further into the use of twitter in education. We also looked into "crowdsourcing" and discussed the idea of using social bookmarking in the classroom.

I have been following numerous entities on twitter and have even posted once or twice (I'm pretty sure that it's actually just once!). I can see how this could be a great information source for teachers but I still don't see much of a use (a good use, at least) for the students.

Social Bookmarking is kind of similar to twitter in that you can use it to follow someone in your field. If you find someone to be a good source of information then the sites that they bookmark may further your own understanding of key issues or keep you up-to-date on new advances in your world of work. When we first learned of this Web 2.0 capability I wasn't completely sold on it. As a member of the military, I am pretty much told where the information is and I go there to find it. I really couldn't see a good reason for sharing bookmarks that I use on a daily basis as everyone else who does my job already has them at their finger tips. Our policies and guidance are littered with internal web documents that we use to keep informed. 90% of what I reach our to find on a daily basis in already captured within the USCG intranet. However, as I have progressed in this cohort, I have realized that social bookmarking and twitter can be very beneficial to teachers. The implementation of such tools in the classroom is something that I will have to wait and see about. I am unable to attempt the implementation of such tools under my current IT oversight!