Being a Language Arts teacher I find that students have great ideas but they get lost in translation. A program like Inspiration can keep them focused and on task. There is nothing better for the visual learner than a good graphic organizer. So what does this have to do with Webspiration?
Webspiration is the new version/concept from the Inspiration people. What makes this different and Web 2.0? First let’s look at what Web 2.0 is. The definition from Wikipedia (a web 2.0 concept itself) is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
Definition
To some, "Web 2.0" might suggest a new version of the Internet, but in reality refers to a second generation of web development and design, which facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mash-up and folksonomies.
That said, Webspiration opens up the possibilities of working with more people with an online collaborative visual thinking and outlining tool. The education possibilities are now open to collaborative work across the street or across the world. Webspiration is like a wiki where multiple people can work on the same document and post their changes so that others can view and edit each other’s work.
The exciting thing about Web 2.0 is that we become active participants in our online experience. It is not just a one-way street but also a portal that we may enter and participate. We can be active participants and not wait idly by waiting and searching for someone to post what we are looking for. We can boldly go where no man has gone before (metaphorically speaking)!
I see Webspiration as a great place to have our students be able to work more efficiently with others. It combines the ability to visually organize one’s thoughts ad ideas and be able to share them with other collaboratively. Students working on projects together struggle to stay on task and organized usually because of the scope and size of a project. Webspiration gives them a tool that they can work on together to get and stay organized throughout a project.
Webspiration: http://mywebspiration.com
Gary,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your information about webspiration. I have to be honest when I say that at one point I had kidspiration on my laptop and I never used it...ok, maybe once. But I never really saw the point. I understand that you are supposed to be able to create organizers with it but it just seemed more complicated then it was worth. I do think that webspiration might be a little bit more worthwhile due to the fact that more than one student can work on something at the same time. That is kind of cool. My next question is do you mainly use this tool for writing purposes?
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI teach Language Arts and use Inspiration mainly for writing organization.
WOW Gary!
ReplyDeleteThis is some awesome information! Thank you for clearing up some questions of mine. I primarily use Kidspiration, but I like the sound of this new Webspiration. How do you go about getting this software? Is there a free trial online somewhere?
Do you have any idea of what the cost of this program is? Is it like a subscription to a database?
In one of the courses I have taken recently, the Professor told us that Web 2.0 is a tool of the past, and that Web 3.0 is in the works. Do you know of anything like that? Is this true?
Have you ever heard of Web 3.0? Supposedly, it is even more interactive... etc, etc.
Thanks again!
Kathryn
Hey Gary--
ReplyDeleteI liked your post because of how clearly you stated the benefits of a resource like webspriation. while I feel and agree that it seems to open a whole new world to teachers and a new outlet for students to speak, I am left with the question similar to thoughts of Wikipedia. If multiple users, perhaps from multiple schools, districts, states, countries, etc, can access a webspriation illustration, does this editing abiltiy lead to misinformation? I'd argue (devil's advocately) that even misinformation can be turned into something useful, can it be damaging as well? Is that really a risk we want? Can filters be added to webspiration for only "class" access? Great discussion points!
Great find, Gary! I am so excited to see that there is an online and even better version of Inspiration online! I have always loved Inspiration and I think it is wonderful for students to use to brainstorm for their projects, papers, and so much more! I also love the fact that it can be done collaboratively! It is like Google Docs or Zoho, but with concept maps! I am super excited that you picked this to share! Great job, Gary!
ReplyDelete