Web 2.0 has opened many opportunities for people to learn, share, and collaborate with each other. One tool I have learned about is Penzu (www.penzu.com). Penzu is an online journal that enables people to share their thoughts with others and allow them to make comments. This structure enables the opportunity for rich discussions based on the initial post. I use Penzu with my students on a daily basis as an online current event journal, but the question is; am I using it to its full potential?
It is strange that I have not viewed Penzu for anything more than an online tool for students to share their thoughts with me. Now, after viewing the video and being reminded of what web 2.0 is, I can see how I can integrate Penzu differently in my class. The students are already sharing with me, but if given the opportunity, they could share it with each other, which will enable collaboration amongst my students. If given the correct type of prompt my students could collaborate and be part of a collective action all through the using Penzu.
Using web 2.0 tools to their fullest potential is something that I have a difficult time completing. I also wonder how many other teachers have problems implementing web 2.0 concepts. Over the summer, I attended a conference where web 2.0 concepts were discussed, but they were never illustrated in action. Animoto, Glogster, Prezi, and Penzu were all demonstrated and shown how students could use these great web tools, but very little was spent on the collaborative aspects of these tools let alone moving into the collective action level. I wonder are we short-changing our students and ourselves by not using these tools fully.
I'm so glad I checked this out, and thank you for bringing it to our attention! I think that this will be another great tool for use with my ARP. Students enrolled in my art classes are often not thrilled about doing any kind of writing, which is understandable to a certain extent...they enrolled to express themselves visually. But I still require some writing, whether it is on reading guides or artist rationales, philosophy statements, reflective writing, etc. I think that this tool could make a bit of the "writing" assignments more well-received, since students can type. I often wonder, what it is about typing that seems less labor intensive to students? At any rate, I'm thrilled to try this. I will be using this as a means for reflective writing and journal entries on the artistic process, with my students. I love that there is the ability to add photos and share (selectively or with everyone).
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty cool. I like the whole journaling concept because I think it is becoming an lost art. I think having your students journal in this way will benefit them in the future and help there overall writing skills. However, I do understand how you feel about not truly using the tool to its full potential. What I would suggest is using the tool as almost a "pen-pal" system. If you were to use it to communicate with anything Social Studies class at another school, you could get a whole different prospective. It would be a great way to communicate and learn from another culture.
ReplyDelete