Example of using Web 2.0 Tools

This week we have been exploring various Web 2.0 tools, defined at tools that allow users to "create and share content online" (Module Three textbook, pg. 4). Here is an example of how I might use a Web 2.0 tool in the K-2 classroom I taught in last year. This lesson idea doesn't include a formal out of class component as the students are fairly young.

Our Learning Objective would come from the creating and applying levels of Blooms Taxonomy: Students will create comic strips that illustrate how to respond respectfully to other students when working in small groups.

We'll start out by reading the book How to Be a Friend by Marc Brown. In small groups the students will think of various problems that happen when we work in groups and how we might "be a friend" and solve the problem. Students will start out by acting out small skits for each other with a problem and solution. We'll then work in the same small groups with a teacher or parent helper to go to Make Beliefs Comix to create three or four panel comic strips with a problem that might happen between students during group time and a solution. This tool doesn't require any kind of login, so it will be easy to access and use from any computer. Each group will email their comic strip to my email account so that I can print them out to make a class book.

Students should look through all the possible characters and items as they try to decide what problem to show in their comic. The helper might want to have students take turns adding components to each panel but assist with spelling and typing as needed. We may even want to print the comics out or take a screen shop in case the email sending doesn't work for some reason. To minimize potential frustration, I would want the helpers to be familiar with the tools that allow items to be resized, flipped, etc. I could also send the URL for Make Beliefs home with students in case they want to try making their own comics at home.


Here is an example of the kind of comic we might create:
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=11058621C754791