A Drill that Would Have Been Impossible Just a Few Years Back...

...yet is totally commonplace in my class these days.

Here's the exact text of a 15 minute drill I gave to my Latin class this morning. They are each responsible for keeping a reference library of resources related to mythology and Roman history, and we are preparing these personal reference libraries in preparation for the Mid-Term exam.

I'm not going to comment on the drill except to say that this is the sort of everyday, commonplace sort of thing going on in a socialtech-integrated classroom all the time. No bells and whistles, just effective use of social media.

Drill Objective: Source Management

1. Tweet the most common topics in your Delicious list to the class #

2. Look through the # and find topics that are under-represented in your own library.

3. Seek out those resources on the Delicious lists of your classmates and add them to your own library. I'd like to see each of you add at least five resources with tags.

4. Choose one of the resources you hadn't known about and write a blog post describing it and explaining exactly why it is useful. Be sure you consider it a 5-star resource.

We'll share our findings in 15 minutes. Class captain, please copy all blog posts to the 'resource' section of the class wiki when we are finished.

Thanks.

That's it. And in fifteen minutes, the students have expanded their personal reference libraries, have collaborated with one another on resources, and have evaluated what makes a resource useful.

It's just a drill.