Presented at EDUCAUSE Annual Conferences, Instructional Technologies, Teaching and Learning, and Web 2.0

From YouTube to Facebook to Scriblink to StumbleUpon, new Web 2.0 applications are popping up in our browsers daily. But what is all the hubbub really about? This daylong workshop will begin with the fundamentals of Web 2.0 technologies: What are they? How do they work? Why should we use them? How are they changing education? Participants will then learn about how these technologies are shaping the ways millennial students-who are more likely to use their cell phones for text than voice and are four times more likely to be gamers than golfers-choose to learn. During the afternoon portion of this workshop, participants will experiment with six important Web 2.0 technologies. Attendees will gain an understanding of each technology, learn how it fits into the larger Web 2.0 shift, and explore potential uses in education.

Social software includes a variety of tools to develop and share text, image, audio, and video files as well as organize resources others create: blogs, wikis, RSS aggregators, podcasts, vodcasts, and more. While the quantity of options can be overwhelming, this workshop will provide an overview of different tool types along with step-by-step demonstrations and effective examples so participants can learn what these terms mean and fine-tune their understanding of social software. A discussion of practical uses of social software in teaching and learning will follow with examples. Participants will also brainstorm how these tools can enhance communication among IT staff and between IT staff, faculty, and students. Select social software resources will be created for this workshop group both for practice and to continue discussion well after the session ends. Participants will be surveyed in advance for a tailor-made program to benefit them the most.

The proliferation of Web 2.0 applications and other emerging technologies has made it difficult for academic support staff, instructional designers, and faculty members to select the best tool for their purpose. The challenge lies in understanding instructional style, content needs, student abilities, and pedagogical "fit," as well as figuring out how to capture evidence of successful practices. In this hands-on, faculty-centered seminar, participants will learn how to determine faculty member expertise and comfort level in using various emerging and existing instructional tools and how to devise strategies to document instructional success. Participants will use and become familiar with successful applications of tools within a pedagogical framework aligned with learner progress. Materials and strategies from this seminar are applicable for web-enhanced, hybrid, and online courses. Emerging technologies to be reviewed come from an open directory of Web 2.0 tools including those from ELI's 7 Things You Should Know About briefs.

Today's technology enables users to form and join communities of common interest to learn and share information. In opposition to the privileged learning spaces of higher education, social media encourage learners to seek out their own answers and construct knowledge as a community rather than as individuals. Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, and Second Life offer new learning spaces, but how do they fit into the learning expectations of institutions?

Second Life is a user-created virtual world simultaneously played by thousands of people around the world. In this session, we’ll share our experiences of teaching in Second Life. Using the interaction combinations integration model we developed as a framework, we will describe our projects, outcomes, and recommendations.