Web+2.0

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 resources are exciting and user friendly. Many of the resources can be incorporated into your teaching and classroom activities. Although it takes time to understand all of them you can begin to explore all the resources they have to offer. Five of the tools are described below:

Audio Tools: Audio Tools allow the students to edit and record sound, including text reading. Utilizing chat rooms through Voxli (voxli.com) can provide a voice conference program where you can have up to 200 people participate. ISpeech (ISpeech.com) is a great tool that converts text to speech. Uploading and embedding podcasts to your webpages is easy with programs like Podomatic (Podomatic.com). These are just a few of the many resources available through the Audio Tools. Classrooms can implement the ISpeech website for those students who have eye sight impairments or those who are audio learners. The school or class bulletins can be included on web pages or pre-recorded for the day’s morning messages through the use of podcasting. The voice conference or chat rooms would be a fun way to explore other schools around the country and even around the world. The voice chat rooms can even be used for a smaller version of a town hall meeting performed by student council for students who are not able to attend in person.

Mapping Tools: Mapping Tools gives students the advantage of creating their own maps with the information that is important to them. QuickMaps (Quickmaps.com) allows students to insert their own landmarks and destinations so they can be more knowledgeable with where places are in relation to the bigger picture. Students have the ability to incorporate their own stories and photos with regard to certain places on a map with MapSkip (Mapskip.com). Both of these resources are great for instruction. Students can be assigned the task of creating a map that includes destinations of landmarks and historical sites at specific cultural centers. A fall project can be given to students that requires them to use MapSkip and record stories and upload photos of their summer vacations to specific locations on a map for everyone to enjoy.

Presentation Tools: Presentation Tools are a necessity for students and teachers alike. Presentation tools can also include resources for publishing and broadcasting as well. Two resources are particularly interesting. The Museum Box (Museumbox.com) gives students the ability to place artifacts in a cube (box) format. The same information that is written in a history paper can be incorporated in the Museum Box for a fun and new way to present material. 28Slides (28slides.com) is another presentation resource that allows the user the ability to add movies, pictures and audio easily from sites like youtube. This program provides different themes and the capability to share or convert to powerpoint.

Research Tools: Research Tools are essential to any teacher’s history or geography classroom. The Research Tool includes resources for search engines, research, asking questions and how-to’s as well. These programs allow students to find information from basic content to specific topics. Teachers.TV is a classroom resource for students, teachers and parents. It contains online videos that can be viewed in multiple areas. Students can research documentaries and films for a variety of topics from academia to health and social areas through SnagFilms (Snagfilms.com). Both of these can be included in the creation of school history projects so students use different resources and not the same ones each time.

Creativity Tools: Creativity Tools are fun resources to use in your classroom they provide thinking tools, games, simulators and the ability to create your own activities. ClassTools.net is a site that students can create games and teachers can create quizzes and tests to test the knowledge of students in a manner separate from the normal multiple choice. Students and teachers can also utilize What2Learn (What2Learn.com) to enforce interactive learning whether one on one or with their friends. These games and quizzes can be a helpful resource for the teacher when helping students who need a little extra help or those just trying to get ahead.

Reflection: The Web 2.0 topic was an incredible resource that I would have never known about. There are so many resources that can be utilized in the classroom that I look forward to experimenting with them all. My students will enjoy the diverse projects that they will be tasked with and it will only encourage their learning. Hopefully many of the students will share what they learn and the various ways they were able to present their knowledge.