Blog#4 Web 2.0 Tools

Wow! There are over 60 pages of tools that we have access to that would be considered a “web 2.0” application. These applications are not only for academic purposes; they are there to give people throughout the entire world access to others. These applications give people the ability to share their own ideas, get feedback from their own ideas, listen to other peoples ideas, give them feedback, and learn new and useful information for academic and nonacademic purposes. We were asked to find tools through web 2.0 that could be used in a classroom. We have discussed many tools and have learned about important ones that I agree should be a part of any classroom. Many of the tools we have learned about were for social purposes, but now we are asked to find ones that pertain to classroom activity.

One tool that I stumbled across is called “WePapers” this tool helps assist students and others share and increase their knowledge. You can find papers and documents that you believe will be useful and download them extremely fast. You can then discuss these documents with others, or you can do it for your own benefits. wePapers is a document-sharing website, that is mainly used from college and university students. Anyone can have full acess, though. This also allows users and classes to create virtual communities. wePapers uses Adobe Flash technology to display documents from all major types (Word, PowerPoint, PDF, OpenOffice Documents, etc.) within the web browser, on the wePapers website. wePapers also allows users to use documents on their own web pages, as well as download and print out the documents.

Another tool that I came across while looking up tools on web 2.0 is “GlobalScholar.” This application offers an exclusive online tutoring program. Parents and students can use this site and feel safe in connecting with educators who provide one-on-one tutoring. These tutoring sessions can be about information that students need help with in the classroom, homework, or even self-paced learning. This program can also be used by schools and school districts to allow teachers and administrators to create an effective way to manage and align content, assesments, curriculum, standards and learning to aid educational performance.

Blog #2

Chatting with Will Richardson was the first time I experienced any face-to-face interaction through the computer. My grandmother always uses Skype, but I never asked her what it was or anything in more detail. After skyping with Mr. Richardson, I immediately called my grandmother and she told me all of the great benefits and life changing experiences she has had because of the new tool. Skyping and other forms of online communication, is slowly changing the world. I don’t think I got much out of skyping with Will because we were on a very tight time frame. This made it impossible for all of my individual questions to get answered to its complete fullest. I hope that if he has more time at some point, I can ask him the questions that were unanswered. He seems to be a brilliant guy with a fresh sense of humor.

Blogging is something else I learned in last week’s class. I have never even heard the term “blogging” before last week. Blogging has so many benefits to it, and I think that there are no negative aspects to it. Well, the only thing I can think of is invasion of privacy, but then I realized, it is the own individuals fault because they know what they are expressing through their blogging is expressed for the purpose of sharing with others. The best part of blogging in my opinion is the reciprocation factor. We are able to blog about anything and show anyone. This is a great tool because you get to share you personal thoughts about any topic, and in return, you can get feedback and advice from others. It is like a two-sided journal. I write in a journal everyday and I always wished that there were side writing back at me. It’s wonderful to see how many experienced professionals have their very own journals that we can view and comment back on. A lot of them seem to be very involved with their passion and are willing to help and share their knowledge and experiences with anyone that is interested.

Any person in every location of the world can get involved with blogging. A great tool for learning how to set it up is using the website: http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=117417

Best of all, blogging can be used for many purposes. It can be used for academic purposes as well as non-academic purposes. Since blogging is used internationally, cultures can integrate with other cultures and communicate their thoughts with a blink of an eye. If someone is planning on traveling, become an exchange student, or just want to learn about another place, they can search any location they want and with just one click can be connected to every kind of culture.

Blogging allows people to show their creativity and individuality. It allows people to express their opinions. Hopefully people watch what they say because it is really easy to offend people with their own opinions on certain subject.

I cannot wait to continue to explore the world of blogging and allow blogging to help my life outside of this class!

Blog #1

I am extremely blown away by how advanced technology has gotten within our school systems. When I was in elementary school, all of the work we did was 100% done manually. I did not even start to put my fingers on a computer until I reached middle school (6th grade.) We had a technology class in 6th grade and we spent an entire year using a program which was called “all the write type.” This was a system that only focused on getting use to the computer by getting adjusted to the keyboard. It did not teach us about the internet, PowerPoint, excel, or even a word processing sheet. As I return to my elementary school as an assistant teacher this time, I am speechless in how everything has changed. I was working with three 1st grade classes. They spent three times a week in the computer lab exploring things I hadn’t explored until I was in 8th grade. Think about that age gap! These children let me into their world and allowed me to feel as if I was going through first grade again. They were showing me websites I had never seen before. I am just amazed at how a span of 10 years really changes the lives of all of us.

Anyway, an answer to one of the questions “If you were to rank or re-rank the NETS for students, how would you rank them and why? Which would be the most important and why?” I think that the question is really hard to answer. All of the criteria’s have equal importance. If I had no choice, I would have to say Critical Thinking and Problem Solving are standards I find most essential. I feel this way because these certain skills are what we learned from the very start. It doesn’t apply to only the area of technology, but in every aspect in our lives from beginning to end. Although they are not easy to overcome, once it is learned, it makes a person a lot stronger. After one acquires these skills, next would come Communication and Collaboration. A quote that immediately caught my eye was “…to support individual learning and contribute to learning of others.” Part of the whole learning process is learning through others and working together to dominate a particular task. Sometimes, working with others to gain something helps you in many sorts of ways. Not only is communication good for student’s awareness, but it also helps the skills of encouragement and motivation.

Creativity and Innovation and Research and Information Fluency would have to come next if I had to make a list. These skills emphasize the importance of piling on old information with the new. All of these concepts overlap one another. Creativity and Innovation links to Communication and Collaboration, for example. The other standard is essential because if students aren’t fully aware /fully understand the meaning behind a certain area, they are not able to gain full appreciation for it. Digital Citizenship and Technology Operations and Concepts would be ranked last on my list. They are important, but I believe one must acquire the other skills in order to obtain these two.

Lastly “Why are the NETs important to use as a planning springboard?” They are important because they are the standards of teaching technology in the classroom. They help steer to inspire and help out teachers who are in need of guiding and inspiring their students. As a result, it has a reciprocated affect. In return, students are then able to individually guide and inspire themselves.