Web 2.0 Tools to Gather Primary Source Information

Excited about our first week of Digital Literacy Workshops. This week we will be looking at PhotoStory3. This is one of my favorite tools to introduce to teachers. There are slicker products on the market, but it is so straight forward, easy to use and full of possibilities. I like to walk through the process of creating a PhotoStory and show that indeed, you can create a movie in less than 10 minutes. Teachers immediately see how they can use this tool in their classroom. I am excited to see what teachers will create once they learn to use this handy dandy tool.

I will be posting the weekly lessons both on a webpage and on our MVWeb Moodle`(online class.)

And now on to this week's Wows.

As you know, last Friday marked the 8th anniversary of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. I saw two great examples of how teachers used Web 2.0 tools to gather primary source information for teaching about this day in history.

Google Docs Forms:

Jen Wagner, set up a Google Doc Form with survey questions about people's memories of that day. She published the form and sent out a request to her PLN (Personal Learning Network) on Twitter and other social networks. The responses were collected in a spreadsheet which she also shared. She was overwhelmed with the amount of responses and the stories that were told. Google Forms is a simple tool, great for collecting information.

WallWisher.com

Another great tool for gathering thoughts and ideas that was used to collect 9/11 primary source information was WallWisher.com On this site, you create a wall. You can ask a question or invite people to comment on a subject. This Wall was created by cwebtech on 9/11 asking, "Where were you when the attack happened?" The responses were many, so it looks a little jumbled but I think that this tool has neat possibilities. You can send people a link to your wall, or you can embed the wall right into a blog or website.

Here is a wall that I created. Click on the Wall to add a sticky.

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