Blog 5

            Web 2.0 focuses on social networking and the sharing of information on the web. Diigo is a great tool for teacher’s to post links for their students to see from anywhere. Teachers could use Diigo to post assigned readings, post supplemental material to help reinforce the lesson, or post current event topics. It is a great way to make sure their students are accessing the correct websites, so the teachers know what content their students will be viewing with out worrying as to what their students could find on the internet. Students can also use Prezi to create slide show presentations for projects or teachers could use Prezi instead of PowerPoint to create lectures. While I believe all Web 2.0 tools are beneficial in the classroom, I think the problem comes in when teachers do not use age appropriate Web 2.0 tools. For example, I would not have first graders using Edmodo. First graders can hardly read and most certainly cannot type. An alternative would be creating review games on Fun Brain for them because this they will know how to use.

            I think a great Web 2.0 tool for teachers is Teacher Tube. This is an educational YouTube site. Teachers all over the country are able to post videos for other teachers to see and potentially show in their classroom. Teachers can bookmark these videos to save for the next school year or post them on their class website for students to see outside of the classroom. Either way Teacher Tube has great supplemental material for teachers to use to reinforce information through videos. http://www.teachertube.com    

A technological advancement, that I see making great strides in the field of education is electronic paper. It allows students to be able to take notes, do assignments and worksheets all on one page. This is because the teacher can upload what material she wants to their electronic paper and the students can scroll through to find the ones they need. This helps to reduce wasted paper, ink and also saves schools money on having to continuously purchase these supplies. It also allows students to keep all their information in one place so they can stay organized.