Web+2.0

WEB 2.0﻿ As a future teacher I found the tools of Web 2.0 very exciting and unbelievably important to the advancement of today’s youth. Students today need to be visually stimulated when they are in school to properly learn the material. Boring old lectures with overhead projectors are things of the past. The tools that I found to be the most helpful were at http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com. The presentation tools such as [|prezentit.com] allow teachers or students to make slide shows with videos on the web and it is really easy to make exciting and interesting presentations. You can literally make a slide show with video, pictures, sound, and graphics, from anywhere as long as you have internet availability. Students and teachers could collaborate via the web with feedback. I think that this type of tool is important in the classroom because online classes are becoming more and more popular. I think that meeting face to face is always important, but tools like this allow teachers to make lesson plans from anywhere. This also benefits the student because he/she can now work on projects at any computer, instead of just the one at home or school. The research tool that I felt was the most beneficial was [|joongel.com]. , it is a very powerful search engine that searches by category. When researching things, students sometimes don’t go beyond Google and Wikipedia, so to have an engine that pulls from almost every top site is pretty helpful. This site can also help me as a teacher find classroom discussion topics, images, and facts to share with the class. There is so much information online, that it is nice to have a site that can break down everything into specific categories. Other research tools that I found helpful were nibipedia.com and ant.com. These two sites search for videos, pictures and other cool things that would be helpful in the classroom. When teaching, its important to be able to show a video in class to break up the monotony and make learning fun! I thought the writing tools such as bookr.com and classtools.net would be awesome for students to help improve creative writing skills and give students a sense of accomplishment. At these sites, students could be able to create their own page-turning virtual book that could include pictures and/or text. A tool like this would be great for student projects in Language Arts classes or History classes. As a teacher, a virtual book would make for an interesting presentation and change of pace, especially for younger students. b The quiz tools that I found at http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Home were very helpful to give students practice quizzes and to help study the specific subject matter. Instead of a lecture or powerpoint, teachers can give students interactive quizzes to challenge them and prepare them for upcoming tests. It is a good way to get everyone involved. In conclusion, web 2.0 is an essential and necessary tool for the teacher of the present. This is an age of technology, and young children are much more savvy with using computers than generations before them. Outdated methods of lectures and still slides are things of the past and in order to reach students on their high-speed high-tech level, we as teachers, need to be able to create and relate information with the latest technology.