1. Harnessing the Power of Web 2.0 in the Economics classroom by Jason G. Welker Zurich International Scool welkerswikinomics@yahoo.com www.welkerswikinomics.com How Ben Stein involve students in learning: How I involve students in learning: From the wiki: Taxation and Aggregate SupplyTaxation and Aggregate Supply From the blog: What are you Laffing at?What are you Laffing at?

2. The why and how of wikis: Wikis are user-created websites Can be used as a traditional class website Teacher sets up outline, creates pages Students add content to pages For use as online study guide for test review Embedded widgets: Calendars, chatrooms, videos, audio, RSS, etc… Teacher monitors students contributions Examples of student-created wiki pages: Fiscal Policy and the AD/AS Model Market Failure - Externalities What is a wiki?

3. Tips on using wikis: Create and publish clear rules for student use Require students to contribute as part of homework grade Award a shared class grade for completion Award individual grades for contribution Edit for credit – Students can earn credit for editing and formatting others work, or add bling Organization is everything!! The teachers job is to keep the wiki organized, easy to navigate for students and visitors Contributors must be approved! Allowing anyone to contribute leads to SPAM! Allow anyone to view. Share your students creation with the world! (my wiki receives over 300 visitors per day, thanks mostly to Google searches for Econ topics) Free wiki sites:

4. The why and how of blogging: Teacher can post links to and explanations of Economics news articles Explain real-world applications of Economic theory Include discussion questions to spur debate among students, who reply in comments Good for sharing media such as video and podcasts Blogrolls provides links to other online resources Examples of Econ teacher blogs: Steponics Economics Economists do it with Models MV=PQ : a blog for Econ Educators Mikeroeconomics Welkers Wikinomics Blog

5. Economists blogs: Teaching teachers Several well known economists write daily blogs Economists blogs offer readers an unedited, personal look into the minds of influential economists Major micro and macro issues broken down for the casual reader: blog writing is non-academic, jargon-free Readers can participate in the conversation through comments Economists who blog: Paul Krugman Greg Mankiw Robert Reich Tyler Cowen Many, many more!

6. Tips on using blogs: Read others blogs often (and comment!) Write on your own blog often Use humor! Require students to read and comment on blogs Organize using tags or categories Design is important (have fun!) Embed digital media (YouTube videos, podcasts, etc.) Include discussion questions (to get the conversations started) Link to articles, websites, or blog posts relating to your course C ATEGORIES AD/AS ModelAD/AS Model (39) AP EconomicsAP Economics (73) Balance of PaymentsBalance of Payments(9) Balance of TradeBalance of Trade (25) BanksBanks (2) Barriers to entryBarriers to entry (1) Barriers to tradeBarriers to trade (16) Basic Economic QuestionBasic Economic Question (9) Behavioral EconomicsBehavioral Economics(7) Free blog sites: www.wordpress.comwww.blogger.com www.edublogs.org

7. Student blogs Individual student blogs: Each student keeps his/her own blog Weekly writing assignment applying theories learned to a story from the news Students read and comment on each others posts Teachers follow students using RSS Class blog: One blog for the whole class Students register as authors, write one or two posts each per quarter Teacher administers blog, grades students posts Example: www.welkerswikinomics.com/studentswww.welkerswikinomics.com/students MORE work for teacher! LESS work for teacher!

8. What is an RSS aggregator? Constantly updated feeds from websites Shows latest posts or articles from blogs and new sites in a widget on your RSS page Provides links to full article. Allows readers to browse the latest headlines from dozens of different sources in one place Why RSS? As Econ teachers, we need to stay updated on latest applications of theory As teachers, we have little time to browse dozens of news sites separately Its an easy, enjoyable, and efficient way to stay informed Allows us to filter the news for our students on public RSS pages Free RSS readers:

9. How to RSS: Set up an account with an Aggregator service Create tabs for different categories of feeds E.g. Econ News, Econ Blogs, Econ Podcasts, etc…Econ NewsEcon BlogsEcon Podcasts Add feeds to each category from websites (news, blogs, podcasts) you have found and think are valuable for your students Direct students to your public page to find articles for use in class, or use it yourself to find articles/posts Example: www.netvibes.com/welkerswikinomicswww.netvibes.com/welkerswikinomics

10. The why of Social Bookmarking: Students post articles to a social bookmarking group Articles are tagged and organized by topic Students annotate and highlight articles Students discuss articles through comments on the social bookmarking site (like a forum) A database of articles is created organized by topic Group bookmarks become a repository of collective research Example: http://groups.diigo.com/group/zis-economics Social bookmarking sites:

11. The how of Social Bookmarking: Teacher creates group on bookmarking site Make the group private, semi-private, or public (recommend making it semi-private) Send invitations to join the group to students via email Have students download a toolbar for their browsers Direct students to appropriate articles and sources using an RSS aggregator Assign weekly or bi-weekly postings Students summarize, highlight and annotate articles before bookmarking Give class time for students to browse one anothers articles Discussions formed around articles can be brought into class discussions

12. W elkers W ikinomics Online tools for Economics students and teachers The Blog: www.welkerswikinomics.com/blogwww.welkerswikinomics.com/blog Nearly 500 articles (and growing) in 75 categories Teacher authors from four countries More authors welcome! The Wiki: www.welkerswikinomics.com/wikiwww.welkerswikinomics.com/wiki 200 pages of student-created content 500 members/contributors, hundreds of thousands of visitors The Universe (RSS site): www.netvibes.com/welkerswikinomicswww.netvibes.com/welkerswikinomics Feeds from over 50 Economists blogs, news sites and podcasts AP and IB Economics study guides/lecture notes: http://welkerswikinomics.com/blog/ww-study-guides-3/ Free, downloadable pdf study guides (over 400 pages) covering Basic Concepts, Micro, Macro, International and Development Economics Includes hundreds of full-color graphs, definitions, examples, and explanations Student study guides hyperlinked to WW blog and other online resources Teachers can order the original lecture notes for use in their own classes. www.welkerswikinomics.com Download the workshop PowerPoint presentation at: http://www.welkerswikinomics.com/downloads/Econtech.pptx