In checking out the web 2.0 tools researched by my classmates, I've started to develop a list of ready to use activities for my classroom. Here are a couple that I've added to the list:
Polling Tools
Sites such as SurveyMonkey allow teachers to easily poll students, parents, or even colleagues. I see surveys like this in my email all the time from administration asking for feedback on issues ranging from scheduling to inservices. I developed a survey to send out to my students, asking for feedback on a new unit that my team and I just developed. It was very easy to see and interpret the results. Students were very excited to give feedback in a digital format. I think as I continue to practice using these sites, I will learn strategies for asking more effective questions - there were a few that I would have liked to have reworded in retrospect.
Online Photo/Video Sharing
I was really surprised at how easy it was to use Flickr. I was able to easily upload pictures and create a slideshow with them. This would be a great way to bring pictures into my classroom without having to use up all my desktop space! Here is one photo that I uploaded... Spring is coming!
Also, Youtube has become one of my favorite tools in Social Studies. It's amazing to browse through the videos that are available on that site. This is one of my Favorites... Learn the 50 States & Capitals
Social Networking
I'm already on Facebook personally (and spend a ridiculous amount of time on it), but I think I'm going to start using it professionally by creating a page for my classroom. While my students are still a bit young for Facebook (I would estimate that only about half of them are allowed to have an account), I think I could create a page that would help to keep them informed and give them lots of opportunity to interact with prompts and each other in a supervised environment. As Andrew pointed out, I'd have quite a few students who don't utilize the site, but it could present as an effective extra-curricular information portal. Plus, I think a lot of parents would like the accessibility of a classroom page.
As you are using Flickr, think about creating collections of photos on topics and adding tags so you can easily find them. Another thing to think about is allowing others to use your images through Creative Commons licensing. You can do that when you upload the images. That flower picture would be a perfect example of something that might be of interest to others.
ReplyDeleteSome of the faculty are creating fan pages for their classes. I must admit I haven't done near as much as many of you have with Facebook (I just use it to keep up with nieces and nephews), but it is something that is heavily used by students for communication. Some schools are using things like Ning and Emodo which try to replicate the Facebook experience but in a more "walled garden" environment.