Harnessing the Power of Web 2.0 in the
Economics classroom
by Jason G. Welker
Zurich International Scool
[email protected]
www.welkerswikinomics.com
How Ben Stein involve students in learning:
How I involve students in learning:
From the wiki: “Taxation and Aggregate Supply”
From the blog: “What are you Laffing at?”
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?
Tips on using wikis:
Free wiki sites:
• 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 teacher’s 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)
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:
•
•
•
•
•
Steponic’s Economics
Economists do it with Models
MV=PQ : a blog for Econ Educators
Mikeroeconomics
Welker’s Wikinomics Blog
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!
Tips on using blogs:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
CATEGORIES
AD/AS Model (39)
Read others’ blogs often (and comment!)
AP Economics (73)
Balance of Payments(9)
Write on your own blog often
Balance of Trade (25)
Use humor!
Banks (2)
Require students to read and comment on blogs Barriers to entry (1)
Barriers to trade (16)
Organize using “tags” or categories
Basic Economic Question (9)
Behavioral Economics(7)
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
Free blog
sites:
www.wordpress.com
www.blogger.com
www.edublogs.org
Student blogs
• Individual student blogs:
MORE work
for teacher!
 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/students
LESS work
for teacher!
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
• It’s 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:
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…
• 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/welkerswikinomics
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:
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
another’s articles
Discussions formed around articles can be brought
into class discussions
Welker’s Wikinomics
Online tools for Economics students and teachers
• The Blog: www.welkerswikinomics.com/blog
 Nearly 500 articles (and growing) in 75 categories
 Teacher authors from four countries
 More authors welcome!
• The Wiki: www.welkerswikinomics.com/wiki
 200 pages of student-created content
 500 members/contributors, hundreds of thousands of visitors
www.welkerswikinomics.com
• The Universe (RSS site): www.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.
Download the workshop PowerPoint presentation at:
http://www.welkerswikinomics.com/downloads/Econtech.pptx