Web+2.0

Web 2.0 is an essay about second version of the world wide web. I think that Web 2.0 is excellent because it provides more interactive and accessible information for both students and teachers. I will use Web 2.0 in my classroom largely as a research tool for students.

WEB 2.0 ESSAY

First I want to start off by saying that this is the first I have ever learned or heard anything about Web 2.0. I didn’t know that the Internet was divided into different generations of what it can and can not do. Knowing this opened my eyes to all the privileges I have involving the Internet and how theses privileges can actually turn into benefits for the classroom. Using the Internet is a great way to integrate technology into the classroom because it pulls in world knowledge (hence World Wide Web). With Web 2.0 one is now able to share ideas much easier and many of these ideas can be valuable teacher resources. Things that can benefit the classroom could be sites and programs that help create quizzes and tests that also would show a new way in explaining wrong answers. Another great thing that has come out of it is a site like goggle scholar. With this you are able to research scholarly literature from books to articles to abstracts. This site is beneficial in secondary education when students are learning to form research papers and need factual evidence to form a correct investigation on a topic. Choosing just 5 tools was actually quite difficult for me to do because each category (research, presentation, video, audio, slideshow, drawing, writing, graphing, etc…) had so many options of things that did similar things. Then you realize that these sites didn’t do the exact same thing. Each one offers something different meaning you can find the perfect online tool to help enhance your classroom. So with this I decided to make things more interesting and do more of a random pick and then think of how it could benefit me as a teacher in the future. First I thought that with my major being behavioral sciences in secondary education I am hoping to be able to incorporate movies an clips into classes for psychology classes. I would want to be able to show clips of the different psychological diseases discussed so that students could get a visual and be able to perceive the differences more. The site I thought I could really benefit from for this was Masher. With this I am able to upload different videos and combine them. Then not only can I add notes and images and music, but also I can upload them and be able to email a copy to students. By doing this I would be able to use the videos as a resource and could use the information for tests and quizzes. Hopefully by them being a visual feature students would also be able to remember with more ease. Next I chose a slideshow tool. I did this for classes involving history. As many people know history can be extremely boring because of all the dates and names and places people have to remember. A slideshow would help improve this because it would not only provide a visual, it would give the students more time to write down all the information needed. I enjoyed the Photo Story 3 for this. I like Photo Story 3 because you could not only create a slideshow you could add your own audio notes and I found this to be great for online students and just to email to each student to have a copy of the information. I next thought that a great thing would be beneficial in a classroom would be one of the mapping tools. This would be great for geography classes because not only would students benefit from learning specifics on different areas but get an understanding on how maps work. I find this highly beneficial since we live in a time of technology but knowing the basics (how to read a map) could help if that technology were to ever fail. I found a few mapping sites I thought could be educational and interesting but my favorite was If It Were My Home. I enjoyed this one because it not only allows you to get a better understanding of the area you are already living in but also encourages interest outside of ones boundaries. It would give kids who may never be able to travel to view different areas and landscapes. I feel that pulling kids out of their own environment can be beneficial in the way of making kids think outside the box. Another great thing I found that could be used in the classroom would be a tool for presentations for the students. Getting students involved in projects and research of their own is a great trait for a teacher in secondary education. It not only prepares them for post secondary education but also helps with social skills such as public speaking. For this I found the best fitting tool to be Pre Zenit. This site not only allows you to create presentations in different places but also allows people of groups/teams to work on the same presentation from different places at the same time. Being in high school students have school, sports, work and most importantly their growing social lives and being able to plan a time but not have to worry to commit to be somewhere would seem to ensure concluding of the project with no excuses of not being able to work together. Last I of course would want to choose a tool that could benefit a teacher such as quiz/poll maker. This could also be used by students as a creative assignment as “today you will be creating your own tests”, a way to change up daily/usual activities. I enjoyed the Kubbu site because it provided a teacher account with 30 student profiles. This would not only help with staying organized of tests/quizzes but it would also make the tests more interesting. The site includes 15 different activities ways that question can be asked such as crosswords, multiple choice, short answer and essay. By mixing up tests with different methods it seems to make the test not as intimidating and it gives the mind a break between different subjects. Overall Web 2.0 is a huge advancement in technology. With this advancement we are able to see the advancement in the classroom with more hands on involvement, broadening students areas of interests and increasing a variety of skills. Although Web 2.0 can be problematic in the classroom with things like Facebook and Tumblr and Twitter being accessible with phones, making a classroom more hands on will keep students off their phones.