Pellissippi 2.0: A Web 2.0 Faculty DevelopmentModel

Audrey J Williams, Director of Educational Technology ServicesPellissippi State Technical Community College, Knoxville, TN

SUMMARY

During Fall 2009, Pellissippi 2.0 was announced to faculty and staff. It wasdesigned as a 7 week “tour” of concepts and leading examples of Web 2.0and social networking/media sites. The tour was organized around the seven building blocks of social mediadescribed by Gene Smith on his blog:http://nform.ca/publications/social-software-building-blockEach week, a different concept was introduced and several Web 2.0 siteswere also introduced that illustrated the concept. The participants wereencouraged to explore the sites on their own time and interest and then blogabout their experiences on personal blogs and/or within a special “class”created on the college’s course management system. There were 38 faculty and staff who signed up at the start of the experience.Since it was largely self-paced and self-directed, many did not completeevery activity or exploration.

EVALUATION

The initial response was very encouraging and exciting. It was deliberatelyplanned to be self-paced and directed by individual interest. However, manyfolks did not have or take time to do their explorations.A survey was offered at the end and eleven participants completed it. Thefeedback was positive. Participants indicated that the open structure wasvery popular but the respondents did feel like some structure might behelpful.It was evenly divided about the use of the discussion boards in the coursemanagement system. The most popular tools were Tumblr and Facebook andmany folks were happy to get to know of other people on campus who werealso interested in social networking and media.

NEXT DIRECTION

Based on the Pellissippi 2.0 experience, Pellissippi 2.1 was created in Spring2009 using a Ning site. Over 100 faculty and staff have joined in this newsocial network site for the college.