Web 2.0 Tools

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“As educators, the use of Web 2.0 tools is transforming our work, and more specifically the way we support students in the classroom (Dabbs, 2012). Web 2.0 tools are tools that allow for the creation, collaboration and sharing of user-generated content online through presentation, video, or mobile tools.  Such tools are created to engage students while being easy and accessible for teachers (Discovery Education).  In my own classroom, I have used and plan on using Web 2.0 tools to allow my students to create authentic projects that express their creativity and individuality.  

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Many of my students have used Microsoft Powerpoint in the past and though this is a useful tool to use for presentations, they can get monotonous and repetitive.  Fortunately, the technology teacher at my school is fabulous when it comes to exposing our students to new Web 2.0 tools so they have a multitude of resources to choose from when it comes to choosing how they will share information.   Therefore, I am able to collaborate with her on upcoming assignments in my own class.  For instance, as part of a book choice project, my students used Prezi to “advertise” a book to their fellow peers.  (Prezi is a presentation tool that is free for teachers and accessible through their website).  Though using Prezi definitely takes some getting used to, the results are more engaging for the audience and the information moves in a more fluid way.  Slideshare is another presentation tool my students have used in their computer class as part of a project on demographics of a country we were studying in class.  Recently we have started our unit study on the ancient Greek civilization.  As part of a project on the ancient Olympic games, my students chose one of the original Olympic games and created an infographic on the history of that sport.  To complete this, they used  Infogram, which again is a free program offered through their site that allows users to make visualizations of data.  At the start of the year, I also had my students work together in small groups to create iMovies on life in ancient Mesopotamia.  We then uploaded them to Youtube and had a day where we viewed them as class.  Google Docs is also used often in my classroom for students to collaborate on projects together or to share assignments with me.  

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Due to a spotty infrastructure and lack of personal devices (many bring their own to school), I must admit it is hard to rely on Web 2.0 tools in my own daily lessons.  Currently, I must work with the technology teacher (which I enjoy doing, don’t get me wrong) because the Internet is reliable in the computer lab and the computers are faster/more dependable.  In the future, I would love to use more tools with my students to create authentic assignments but reliable connection to the Internet is needed for research and creation of these assignments.   I think it would be great to have my students create a survey using Google Forms to collect data when we are studying data and statistics in math.  I would also like to expose them to Animoto (a video presentation tool) as an alternative to their book choice assignment they have every term.  

References:

Dabbs, L. (2012 March 5). Using web 2.0 tools in the classroom. Kids Discover. Retrieved from http://www.kidsdiscover.com/teacherresources/web-2-0-tools-classroom/

Web 2.0 tools.  Discovery Education. Retrieved from http://web2014.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools.cfm

  

Google Apps for the Classroom

The use of Google Apps in a school setting can be used between students and teachers to collaborate, communicate, synthesize, analyze, create projects and so much more!   Anyone can sign-up for a Google account and once that is done the possibilities endless .  Google has a website, Google for Education, that allows educators, students and parents to explore all the benefits of incorporating Google Apps into their school setting.  The great aspect about Google Apps is that they can be used between teacher and student, student to student, or teacher to all students.  Not only will the students be engaged because they are collaboratively working together but they are also doing something they enjoy: Communicating with one another on their device’s.  There is no worry about printing or saving documents because everything is easily stored in a user’s Google Drive, which is pretty much like a USB that you can access from any device.  Perhaps the best feature of Google Apps for education is the fact that they are all free!

In my own school, all students starting in fourth grade are set up with a Gmail account through the school’s technology teacher.  This way they are prepared to start sharing and collaborating on documents once they get to middle school.  The teachers have also been using Google Apps for sometime now.  Often the Principal will share a document or notice that she may need editing on what us to review.  This is a fast and efficient way to get the message out without copying and wasting paper.  I personally love Google Apps and have been using it for about two years now.  I just love the ease of access to all my files and the user-friendliness the applications.  

Survey Results (Using Google Forms)