Web+2.0

Web 2.0 is a variety of tools all compiled together to give teachers a huge amount of resources to create opportunities to integrate technology in their classrooms. I think that all of these tools are fabulous and I love the variety that there is in all of them. In this essay there are a couple of tools that I chose I would use in my classroom and how I would use them. Other than the tools listed I would love to utilize Web 2.0 to show my students how to integrate technology and learning.

 Technology in the schooling system has had a major increase in the last five years. This technological advance in such things like Web 2.0 is very beneficial in the classroom for students and teachers. By using Web 2.0 and all of its different features gives students a variety of techniques to help them learn.  Ustream is a live, interactive broadcasting system that is shared live online with a global audience. I think that this would be a great addition to a class in many ways. One way that I would use this in my classroom is by pairing up with a class in another county, almost like pen pals. Every Monday they would have a live broadcast with one another where we could update each other on current events in our home country, the things we are learning in school and even share some of the work that individual students are doing. This could also be extended into pen pals as well. I think this would be a great addition to a class because it would connect them to other students and broaden their views and knowledge of our world.  Scrapblog is a tool where you can combine photos, audio, video, and text to created multimedia pages that can be shared with family and friends. The idea of being able to combine the students work into one general are where they have the freedom to design it and make it their own is a fabulous invention. In my classroom I would use this as an on-going project that combines the students best work and photos from the year into one multimedia scrapbook that they can share with their families at the end of the year. The students would do this on their own after they finished any project which they then would upload onto this site. At the end of the year they will have a combined unique file that they can share.  Page Flip-Flop transforms your work into an interactive flipbook that can be used in a classroom or shared with families. I would use this as a tool in language arts where the student would create a story and then using this tool transform it into an interactive book that they could share with their classmates. This would allow their creativity to soar and their presentation comfort to grow the more they have the opportunity to share.  With having so many options to choose from to use in a language arts setting I really wanted to find a tool that I could use in math. Creatagraph allows you to choose from five different graph styles and then allows you to actively interact with your class creating a graph together. By creating bar graph of line graph together as a class would be a great tool for using when explaining graphs to students as a new concept. The students would then go on to complete or create their own graphs and then have the option to then recreate their graph on the board to share with the class.  Having all of these tools for math, language arts, science and history is great but our jobs as teachers is also to teach students basic problem solving skills. Samorost 1 allows for this to be taught using technology. Your job as the player is to walk around the alien spaceship and workout how to make it change its course. I would use this in my classroom as more of an extra activity for those students who are ahead and have completed their work. This would help the students to expand on their problem solving skills and also allow then to have fun doing it as well. Learning the basic core subjects is defiantly the most important part of a school day but if the students have the opportunity to learn these problem solving skills, I think that it is going to be very beneficial for them.  Web 2.0 has defiantly been a positive contribution in the education society. By integrating this kind of technology in the classroom, many opportunities that were not possible before are now. I did not realize how many different programs Web 2.0 has to offer and now that I know and I have access to these programs I will take advantage of them in my classroom.