Web 2.0 Tools

Classroom teachers were able to function perfectly fine and teach well before the Internet and computers became part of the curriculum. With that said, the web 2.0 tools make teaching a little easier in many ways. Organizing, connecting, sharing, researching, and planning are a lot easier with the use of the Internet. The tool I chose to examine for this weeks Wiki post was Delicious. The program allows its users to import their "Favorites" and then "bookmark" them. The users "bookmarks" will be accessible from any computer with Internet. Some of the educational uses for Delicious are: organizing websites to share with students, parents, other professionals, connect information on topics discussed in class with information from the Internet, create a page for students to work on a project/report together, and create a page for parents to share resources, upcoming events, or important information. Flickr seems like something which, if used in the classroom or school, would have to be monitored carefully. An example of a carefully monitored situation would be if students wanted to post their own pictures with connection to the school. Classrooms could use this to display artwork, group projects, what the classroom looks like, and other things in the classroom. Schools could use this for many uses. One use is posting pictures from school sponsored events such as fundraisers, walk-a-athons, rally days, or random pictures from school days. Of course, every child photographed would need a release signed by their parents. Legally, this is the safest way to share pictures and information on students on the Internet. LibraryThing is a great program for classrooms and for schools. The classroom teacher could use this program to keep an inventory of the books in the classroom. Also, the classroom families can see the types of books the class has and any genres that are lacking. I could also see schools using this program to organize and "display" the books in the school library. Since all of this information would be online, parents can access the information and help their children pick out books from the library. It adds to the home-school collaboration for those parents who are not able to pick their children up from school everyday. I believe someone else mentioned this in the Angel discussion, but I think it is such a great idea. I think this program has both educational and personal uses. I currently use both Twitter and Facebook and struggle with the benefit vs. the risk of their use in education. Twitter would be helpful for classes that use "current events" for social studies/history. CNN, WCVB, NECN, MSNBC, and many other news channels are connected to Twitter. The president and the White House are on Twitter as well, which would be interesting for government and law classes. For younger students, being exposed to news and current events is beneficial and gives them a chance to read. To be honest, I do not think teachers should use Twitter to inform parents of their child's day. That was mentioned somewhere and, for elementary classrooms, it is a hassle to just get out of the classroom. Requiring teachers to update their Twitter status is an unnecessary addition to the transition schedule. I have not mentioned Facebook because I believe there is too much of a risk for students to be lured or click on an inappropriate ad. The educational benefits of Facebook are not apparent to me. In conclusion, I believe Delicious, Flickr, and LibraryThing have many educational benefits while Twitter and Facebook do not. Please leave comments about educational uses of Facebook that I am not aware of.