Web+2.0

Web 2.0

After reading about the Web 2.0 tools, I think it is an extremely effective tool in education. There seems to be a tool for just about everything needed to teach. I think Web 2.0 can be used at any grade level and in any classroom setting; however, like any other technology tool it should be used in moderation. Some Web 2.0 tools would be effective during a subject area that is hard to explain.One of the tools could help show a visual representation of that subject. The Web 2.0 tools would also be very useful for visual learners in the classroom. A third useful way of using the tools is for group projects, especially since there are tools that allow students to work on a presentation collaboratively from their homes as well as in the classroom. The first tool I found from the list was under the presentation tools section and it is called PreZentit. This tool would be exceptionally helpful for my students who may need help on how to do their part of the presentation. This website allows students to work on the same presentation at the same time. Also when it comes time to present the students do not need to worry if the Internet is down because it can be shown without the use of the Internet. An example of when I will use this tool in my classroom will be when I have a student with a Learning Disability who already has all of his information, but is unsure of how to organize his information onto his slides of the presentation. I could help him and the other students set up a time of when they want to be on the computer to work on their presentation. By working with this tool, my student will get the help he needs from his peers instead of just me or his other general education teacher. Also this tool helps his peers learn how to help him and guide him while still making the presentation look and sound the way they want. Another tool that caught my eye is called Mind Tools and can be found in the organizing tools tab. Mind Tools is a more upper grade level or young adult tool. It helps students with skills needed in a job setting. It provides ideas on everything from leadership skills to stress management. The site also gives tips on how to stay organized at work and in everyday life situations. It also gives different weekly tips on how to be a better person at work. This tool would be extremely helpful for students who are in the transition program, meaning they have already graduated, but do not officially graduate and leave the school until they are twenty-one years old. While in the transition program students learn job skills, how to stay on task more, and other everyday skills such as cooking and cleaning. Mind Tools would be great to use to reinforce the positives about working and what all is needed to be successful in any kind of job or career. Mind Tools would be helpful not only for them, but for me as a teacher as well because I know there will be days when I will use the stress management tool on the Mind Tools website. The third tool is Info Please which is under the research tools tab. This website is easy to navigate and gives useful research tools such as encyclopedias, almanacs, dictionaries, and biographies. It is a great place to start looking up the basic and general information. This tool would be helpful for all of the students in my class as well as the paraprofessionals because the resources it provides are useful in brushing up on information for the class they are helping the students in. I would use this tool very often in my class because my students most likely will not have to do a long report for instance in history, so Info Please would be a good place for them to go to use the biography of the person they are to do their report on. A fourth tool is ClassTools.net under the creativity tools tab. This tool would be one of the most fun to use because as a teacher I can create games to help my students study. The website has an area which will show examples of questions and games or other study ideas that I can pull from for my students. This tool would also be effective for the students because when learning and studying are fun students generally retain more information. I would use ClassTools.net for the students in my class who have Learning Disabilities, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, and/or ADHD because the games would keep them entertained and help them solidify facts. I would also introduce this tool to other teachers as well because then they could create the study guide in the game and give their students the website address to study at home before the test. A fifth tool that would be especially helpful in Geography is Quikmaps which is under the mapping tools tab. Quikmaps allows students to place landmarks and draw a line to and from their destination on Google maps. It is easy to use and allows students to decipher and see the entire world map in detail if they wanted. I would use this tool during my class to show detailed versions of an area we are studying, such as a country in Africa. For example I can draw a line from Kenya in Africa to Colorado in the United States to show them how far apart the two places are. Also I could have the students create a road trip and by using Quikmaps they have to draw lines and mark the places they want to go. All the way around Web 2.0 tools are fantastic to use in any sort of school subject. In the field of Special Education it is especially wonderful because there are many tools that are easy to use, there is an abundance of them, and there is one that every student can use. The five tools I explained will more than likely be used in my classroom because the tools will not only be helpful to the students, but to the paraprofessionals and myself as well.

This was an essay in which I had to write about five different Web 2.0 tools. I enjoyed this assignment because I was able to really explore a bunch of tools that I did not even know about. I found everything from presentation to organization and research tools. I would not use this particular assignment in my classroom; however, I might actually use some of the tools I learned about in my classroom for and with my students.