3)+Web+2.0

Web 2.0 1) Prezi I am a big fan of Prezi and have used it on several occasions. As it is a presentation tool, I use Prezi as an alternative to PowerPoint. A basic advantage is that the presentation is stored to the proverbial “cloud-“ as in, it is saved on Prezi’s server somewhere, not as a hard copy on my computer. This is only a minor feature though. More importantly, Prezi is more engaging visually. When I create a Prezi, I feel as though I am planning a trip. This is because of how the program navigates. Instead of seeing a slide, and then another slide, Prezi zooms in and out, and creates movement that draws the audience in. It also helps me create a hierarchy of ideas with the way that it moves. Here is an example: I created a Prezi on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel //The Great Gatsby//. The biggest text was the author’s name, which then zoomed to some biographical information, including some of his novels, where the //The Great Gatsby// was listed. I was then able to zoom in to the novels name. On this slide, I put some basic information about the novel. I then had the screen “move” to another section that listed the main characters. With each character, I was able to zoom reveal character traits. I would zoom out after each one, and back in for the next. When this was done, I zoomed out to the novel’s title, and then zoomed to a different spot on the screen to reveal chapter one. I would then have the screen move sideways to another chapter, then another, etc., all in the shape of a circle. The movement (as opposed to a zoom) showed that the slides were even on the hierarchy. 2) Google Docs I saw Sarah Woodard, and expert language arts teacher from Falcon Bluffs MS, use Google Docs to great success. As I see Prezi as a substitute for Power Point, Google Docs is a substitute for MS Word. Similar to Prezi, Google Doc files are saved to a cloud. This was nice for students because they could then access their files from any computer with an Internet connection. This eliminated the excuse that “students lost their thumb drive.” In use, students could go online, log into Google Docs, work on a project at school, and then go home (where they all had computers) and continue working on their assignments. While that was helpful, I saw the real advantage when students had problems with their assignments: A student could email a teacher when they are away from the classroom and ask for help. The teacher could then log into Google Docs and view the student’s paper and mark the paper in a different color font. This allows students to receive real-time feedback on their papers. 3) PB Works PB Works serves the exact same function as Wikispaces. It a site that allows an individual to create a web site based on a preexisting template. It allows limited customizations to the template so that the site can have the look and feel that the site designer is going for. As we learned in EDT 3010, these sites are called wikis. I plan on using this technology in my classroom to allow students to create portfolios of their work. Students will have an intrinsic motivation to create and maintain their portfolios because others can see it. This starts with customizing the page. As a language arts teacher, I can reinforce the idea of creating for an audience. Also, since the page will be made available to their classmates and parents, students will be motivated to do work that meets a high standard. In some districts, I have seen wikis used over a student’s high school career so that it can be submitted as part of their college application process. This is quite amazing- a collection of a student’s work, demonstrating their growth as a writer, reader, and thinker over a four year period! I think this is the direction that education is going. Wikis, like PB Works is also an invaluable tool for teachers to keep parents informed. An instructor can post important information like contact info, class schedules, assignments, and anything else that parents and students might want to know. As long as the Wiki is maintained, it puts responsibility on the parents and students. If a student goes home and claims not to have homework, a parent can check up on that and then suggest that the student get a head start on a paper or study for an upcoming test! 4) Blogger Blogger is another site where people can go, make minimal customizations (font and color), and then post. In this case, it is meant as a vehicle to post pictures and blogs. Like PB Works, Blogger has two benefits for classroom use. The first is use for the teacher to communicate with the world about classroom happenings. In my case, I would post pictures of my students, use it as a means to give students public praise, and remind people about relevant information that is coming up (trips, assignments, tests, etc). For instruction, Blogger is an invaluable tool to get students to respond in writing. I might post a picture or video clip that relates to something we did in class. Students will then go on and respond to my post. I have seen this done in classrooms, and it is quite interesting: Only the teacher that new the identity of the students who commented. In that kind of anonymous format, many students responded far differently than how they respond in class. It was also interesting to note that, since Blogger records the times that people comment, responses from later in the night were more “adventurous” (for lack of a better term). 5) Second Life I dislike online classes. In the ones I have taken, I felt that they were limiting in their format. Adding a simple thing like profiles would make doing group activities so much more engaging. Second Life provides the interpersonal experience of a classroom through a correspondence format. One person can communicate with others in a fairly realistic environment. The initial navigation of Second Life is more like a videogame than anything else. I would have the capabilities to do things in Second Life like blog, lecture, message, and give presentations, though I think that this is a technology that I would initially pass in in my classroom. I have two major concerns regarding Second Life in a classroom: First, I could not find any information on limiting my students’ ability to communicate with other people. We all know the Internet is a notorious spot for people who prey on children: The last thing I want to do as a teacher is expose give my students to a person that could bring them harm. My second concern is that Second Life is a big platform where students could easily waste time doing a multitude of other things: hanging out with friends, gaming, shopping, exploring, and just creating a world. While this is fun, I do not see a place for it in my classroom. I see it more as a time-suck than an educational environment, though I am sure that there are teachers who are far more creative than me that use it effectively: I fully open to their suggestions and hope that this becomes one more tool for my classroom.