Teaching With Emerging Technologies: Social Software for Educators / WS5
Jeff Miller, University of British Columbia, Canada

Abstract:

This workshop will focus on how an emerging collection of relatively simple (and often free) software tools is transforming the ways in which we can create online educational spaces and facilitate interaction with and between our students. Social software tools such as wikis, weblogs, and Real Simple Syndication (RSS) can greatly enhance communication and collaboration between students and help to develop strong online communities. At the same time, these tools allow people to gain control over the everincreasing amount of information that is available through the Internet. These characteristics make social software extremely useful to educators who are trying to break open the rigid structure of typical CMS environments, and to provide their students with rich, dynamic learning resources and activities.

In this two hour workshop, participants will be provided with examples of social software tools that have been implemented in graduate and undergraduate courses, and will be given hands-on experience in using tools such as weblogs, wikis, social bookmarking and RSS feeds.

Biography:
Jeff Miller is an Instructional Designer and Project Manager at the University of British Columbia. He develops online and mixed-mode courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels, designs CDROMs and educational multimedia, and teaches in UBC's Master of Educational Technology Program as well as CARNet's E-Learning Academy. He has provided professional development workshops in pedagogy and technology at universities in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. He is a co-winner of the 2004 British Columbia Innovation Award in Educational Technology.