Social Learning tools for the school classroom

Yesterday I gave a keynote presentation at a schools conference  entitled " The Social Learning Revolution",  where I talked about the impact that social media was having on learning both inside and outside the school classroom.

During my presentation I mentioned a number of tools that could help classroom teachers provide a collaborative "networked learning" approach to classroom-based learning. 

Although up to now I haven't  really focused on school-based learning, let alone social learning in the school classroom,  this is clearly a very important area, and I have been asked for some more resources in this area

So, today, I've begun by adding a new section to my Directory of Learning Tools called Social Learning Tools for the School Classroom - that is those tools and platforms particularly targeted at or useful for learners aged 5-18.  As this is a huge age range, the list is also sub-categorised as follows, ie tools suitable for:

Key stage 1 :  years 1-2, ages 5-7
Key Stage 2 : years 3-6, ages 7-11
Key Stage 3 : years 7-9, ages 11-14
Key Stage 4 : years 10-11, ages 14-16
Key Stage 5 (Sixth Form) : years 12-13, ages 16-18

But I would like your help to build this list. So if you are a school teacher (or a provider of social and collaboration tools for schools) and you would like to recommend a tool for the list, please do so in the comments section at the bottom of the listing (ie not in this posting!!), and I will add the tool to the page in the Directory'.  Thanks for your help.

BTW the Directory already contains over 2,000 tools in 12 categories.

Comments

[Nancy Rubin]

Campus Pack Social Software for Learning

http://learningobjects.com/

Campus Pack empowers instructors, academic technologists, and instructional designers to build and implement assignments and activities from a palette of re-usable social media tools. Practitioners easily reach pedagogical goals through implementation of evidence- and problem-based learning.

[Harold Jarche]

Jane: these are the tools & web sites I collected for our sons as they were going through school. Some may still be of interest to educators:

http://www.delicious.com/jarche/student_resources

[yoram orad]

Good evening Jane. I've justed posted a message concerning your request in Shluvim (http://shluvim.macam.ac.il), the new social israeli social network for educators which I lead together with Susan Tsairi. The language used in Shluvim is hebrew so unfortunately I guess you won't be able to read it's contents. however, I have posted this message about web tools for education and I'll collect the tools that will be aggregated in my blog and send you. what is the deadline for this?
my email for contact: [email protected]

yours

Yoram orad

[Mark]

Campus Pack proved extremely unpopular with our students, mostly I think because they are used to reading 'proper' blogs on the internet and the inferior Campus Pack tools felt somehow ersatz.

We opted in the end for WordPress Multi-User with Buddy Press enhancements, which proved cheaper and much more popular.

I realize that a lot has gone into the development and promotion of Learning Objects, but I cannot shake the impression of some rearguard action mounted by old-style IT departments and practitioners who don't quite 'get'-or want- the newer social tools. In this respect, I'd put it right up with Microsoft Sharepoint as a tool for giving your users a dull and circumscribed experience.