3.3 Reflection: Using Web 2.0 Tools

Project: Creating an Online School Newspaper

Learning Objectives:

In this project students will:

• Analyze various elements of a newspaper by researching other online newspapers and blogs.
• Evaluate various elements of a newspaper and use Google Forms to decide upon the elements that should be included in their online newspaper.
• Create a basic outline of their online school newspaper using mural.ly.
• Form student teams using Gantter that will be in charge of a specific section of the online newspaper.
• Design the basic layout of the online newspaper using Wiki Projects in Haiku LMS.
• Collect information regarding their specific portion of the newspaper and write articles.
• Publish their articles in the online newspaper and embed multimedia.

This project, as outlined above, would be a complex, multi-week activity that would involve many layers. For the purposes of this reflection, I have chosen to describe the third learning outcome: Create a basic outline of their online school newspaper using mural.ly. Before my students would even begin creating the outline, I would need to introduce them to mural.ly and provide direct instruction on how to use this web 2.0 tool. After the direct instruction, I would assist students with setting up mural.ly accounts and provide a short activity, having them create a quick mural so they can familiarize themselves with the tool. The next day, we would begin the task in earnest. I would set up the mural.ly project with starter blocks at the top (page 1, page 2, etc), and invite the students as collaborators on the project. Students would use comment and chat features to negotiate where they would place the various elements of the newspaper.