Web 2.0: How-To for Educators

Book Review: Web 2.0: How-To for Educators

Author: Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum
Length: 200 pages
Intent/Focus: To help educators understand the next-generation web technology currently available, and how to integrate new tools in the classroom

What You Will Learn: How to utilize the best collaborative tools available today, including blogs, wikis, social networking and applications such as Skype, Google Earth, Wordle, etc.

Why We Recommend It: Web 2.0 offers educators new tools with which to create, collaborate and enhance the learning experience for our students. We recommend this book because it provides a great teachers’ resource for understanding exactly how and when to use these new tools.

Summary:
Just when we were starting to build up some self-esteem for being web-savvy (smiling with pride at our Participant’s Trophy), they give us Web 2.0. It’s hard to keep up, right? But there’s good news: when we bring Web 2.0 tools into the classroom, we transform learning. And there’s a book that can show us how.

Web 2.0 How-To for Educators, a companion book to Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools by the same authors, gives us a step-by-step guide to the best collaborative tools available today, including blogs, wikis, social networking, and applications such as Skype, Google Earth, Wordle and more.

One Amazon reviewer describes the book as, “a terrific resource for educators who are integrating technology into the curriculum,” citing elements of the book such as, “actual examples of how teachers have effectively used the technology in their classroom... step-by-step directions on how to get started.”

Another reader, who bought the Kindle version, found particular value in the embedded text links. Clicking “takes you to a synopsis of the tool written about. With another click it takes you to the homepage of the web 2.0 tool... I especially liked the chapter on blogging and online discussing amongst students.”

Using a simple formula for each concept, Web 2.0 How-To for Educators describes the Web’s latest tools, when teachers should use them, how to use them, and why they’re useful. The book also offers an abundance of additional resources, including practical examples from educators around the world.

Topics covered in the book include:

• Online collaboration tools 
• Social networking
• Technology integration
• Higher-order thinking

Web 2.0 affords us new tools with which to connect, create, collaborate and share information. By applying these tools purposefully in the classroom, we can enable a shift in student engagement, creativity, and higher-order learning skills.

Author Gwen Solomon has held several significant positions in technology and education, including jobs with the U.S. Department of Education, New York City Public Schools, techLEARNING.com, Digital Learning Environments, 21st Century Connections, and the Well Connected Educator.

Co-author Lynne Schrum is a professor and coordinator of elementary and secondary education at George Mason University. An author of numerous articles and books, Schrum is currently the editor of the Journal of Research on Technology in Education (JRTE).

Have you read this book or applied Web 2.0 in your own classroom? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below.

Interested in additional Web 2.0 tools for teachers?

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Edudemic: The Best Interactive Web Tools for Educators
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