Final+Examination

Web 2.0 resources are powerful educational tools the potential uses of the tools are constantly evolving and changing. “this is a hugely challenging time to be an educator. The world is changing around us, yet as a system, we have been very, very slow to react.” (Richardson, 2010) My current employment situation is changing and evolving a little this year and so professional application of technology and web 2.0 tools will reflect those changes. For the 2012-2013 school year my employment situation will be a fourth grade, contained classroom teaching all subjects. The projected enrollment of the class is 35 students. The school is a traditional elementary school with 240 students in grades pre-K through sixth. From the Richardson I learned more about how I could professionally use web 2.0 tools to free time and improve management. Wikis have several possible uses in my professional practice including being used for literacy circles. As a fourth grade reading language teacher I can transition my current practice of a binder for each literacy circle to a wiki for each circle. This would allow students to take more of a management role for their reading group and make a huge difference in the paperless activities I can facilitate for the classroom. The cons of wikis include security concerns according to Educase “Because users can modify the content of a wiki (add to, edit, delete materials), allowing such manipulation of the site’s information carries some risks”.(2005) Currently plans are to have the wikis for literacy groups password protected that will deter someone from outside the class from damaging the wiki but doesn’t account for the students themselves. With close supervision and coaching about appropriate behaviors this is a great tool for making reading a paperless period. Blogging or keeping a weblog is another powerful web 2.0 tool and can be very versatile. For applicable professional use blogging is still a personal journey. Blogging is still something new and that comfort for implementing as a professional tool isn’t there. As a personal tool blogging is allowing for professional development by fostering a stronger awareness for the practice and events going on in the teaching profession. In future professional practice blogging could be used for writing circles and publishing a written piece for students. “Blogs engage readers with ideas and questions and links. They ask readers to think and to respond. They demand interaction.” (Richardson, 2010) The chronological organization of a blog is ideal for tracking student progress and growth toward objectives over time. The use of blogging to track student progress is a future professional goal. The pros of using blogging this way are that the students will have a record of their work and if it is continually added to every year the end result is a portfolio of all of their learning from K-12. The con of blogging this way is that because technology is intimidating for many people the record of student learning could be lost or incomplete. Blogs would have to be managed and supervised in order to make sure the material posted was safe and quality. Since the manager or blogger has the ability to delete posts and edit posts the accuracy could be questionable. Aggregators like Google reader and Really Simple Syndication or RSS are currently a part of using Blogging. Blog posts are generated from personal experiences and also from professional resources. The aggregator using RSS has collected these professional resources. “RSS feeds make blog content accessible through newsreaders, allowing bloggers to increase the sharing of this information among interested individuals.” (Educase, 2005) As a web 2.0 tool this perfectly simplifies the research process and can free time and resources for other activities. As a future professional application the use of a reader and RSS to collect information is a powerful idea. Students could use a teacher created reader to write a research report and they would then have the resources they need to effectively write. Alternatively students could create their own reader for a given topic and the aggregator they created with RSS would be a reference source to guide their research. Essentially RSS and an aggregator support reading and writing activities. Social bookmarking is a web 2.0 tool described by Richardson as a way to “help you keep track of all the information you might need or want.” (Richardson, 2010) RSS sends information but if it is something found on the Internet that the user wants to keep track of social bookmarking is as tool that will complete the task. Delicious.com is a social bookmarking site that organizes Internet resources for users “participating in the creation of a new way of organizing information” (Richardson, 2010) professionally social bookmarking is a way to manage information that might be useful in future practice. The information is kept on the internet and there for can be accessed from any internet connection. This is an incredibly convenient pro for using social bookmarking professionally. However “social bookmarking means storing data in yet another location that you have to maintain and update.” (Educase, 2005) so this is a con for someone who is already managing multiple technologies. “Flickr is a great tool for introducing students not only to digital images and publishing, but also to the social conversations and collaborative learning opportunities” (Richardson, 2010) Online photos from flicker are a free resource for educators who know the legalities of proper use. Using the creative commons website students can search for a photo and then write about the photo in their journals. This is a creative way to incorporate art objectives into core activities. In professional practice as an educator responsible for grading students for all subjects written expression based on an art form is a great way to start. One negative to Flicker in a professional setting is the ability to search anything might be abused. “no one can guarantee with absolute certainty the quality or appropriateness of the content on Flickr. (Richardson, 2010) The use of Flicker professionally is a tool that allows student to see things and places they might not be able to see from a classroom. media type="custom" key="20569668"

From the slideshow presentation by Jan Magee and uploaded in 2009 there are several additional ideas about how to use flicker in education. Making flash cards for science or social studies was one idea included and this seems like an idea that could be used very successfully in a fourth grade classroom. Audio and Video casting can be done in a variety of ways. Podcasting is an audio casting system that “allows education to become more portable than ever before” (Educase, 2005) There are several ways to utilize the technology in professional practice since “podcasting allows lectures or other course content to be made available to students if they miss class” (Educase, 2005) having an archive of topics taught in class is a great tool for students who need re-teaching too. There are a couple cons of podcasting and audio casting that interfere with it being successfully implemented, the quality of the audio is impacted by the quality of the material the speaker is using, the equipment and the users ability to edit. Also students cannot interact with an audio cast and ask questions they might have which could be problematic to effective professional use. Video casting is very similar to audio casting and the most common video casting tool is Youtube.com. Users create videos and upload them to the internet. The cons of audio and video casting are very similar. The quality of the equipment used and the experience of the person creating the video will effect the end quality of the video. However the possibilities of how to use video casting and youtube.com are great and the video uploaded to youtube by schools in 2011 explores more possibilities. media type="youtube" key="NegRGfGYOwQ" height="315" width="560" According to Jeff Dunn the creator of Edudemic.com “You can find videos that make the subject of your lesson more applicable to students’ everyday lives. You can teach students video production and editing skills through projects and upload the videos to your classes YouTube channel.”(2009) In professional practice video casting is an opportunity for students to grow and participate more in their educations. Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey and is a social media tool that according to biography.com “uses short messages to share personal expression.”(2012) Since technology is constantly evolving and changing the education applications change too. Twitter could be used in the classroom in a variety of ways according to biography.com ““Twitter may have already revolutionized the way that people communicate, but Dorsey isn't done yet. "In terms of technology, we're going to see a better and more immediate experience around the everyday things we do in life," Dorsey said.”. Twitter in the every day life of a classroom can be used as a response system with the 140-character limit allowing students to give quick feedback and communicate about a lesson, activity, or topic. Of course a 140 character limit is a limit and anything that cannot be effectively synthesized into that size is by default excluded. One positive professional implication Twitter holds for education came from Educase “As a tool for students or professional colleagues to compare thoughts about a topic, Twitter can be a viable platform for metacognition, forcing users to be brief and to the point—an important skill in thinking clearly and communicating effectively.”(2007) Social networking is a web 2.0 tool that can be used to network and communicate with the school community, parents and students. Facebook is one of the most common social networking tools and there are countless ways to use it in the field of education. Another social networking tool is Ning. “Ning allows you to create your own free social networking site around whatever topic you want” (Richardson, 2010) Social networking is a tool for educators to develop a network and a network of colleagues or like-minded individuals are likely to be successful in creatively solving problems. There are safety issues with social networking that impede professional application with students especially as regards Facebook for me personally. According to Educase “the actions and activities on the site may lack substance.”(2007) and superficial really has no place in education. With the constant evolution an educator faces learning to keep up is a struggle. As it applies to my professional practice several of the web 2.0 tools discussed in class were familiar. I am experienced with these tools and they have been used in my past classroom and professional practice with great success. Useful web 2.0 tools take time to learn and explore but the benefits of how they have helped professionally have always been very worthwhile. Within a new professional position application of web 2.0 tools will ultimately alter to suit the situation.


 * Bibliography **

Richardson, W. (2011). //Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin a Sage Company.

7 things you should know about Wikis. (2005). Educase.com. Retrieved 11:23, August 9, 2012 from []

7 things you should know about Social Bookmarking. (2005). Educase.com. Retrieved 11:45, August 9, 2012 from []

7 things you should know about Blogs. (2005). Educase.com. Retrieved 12:45, August 9, 2012 from []

Jack Dorsey. (2012). //Biography.com//. Retrieved 10:33, Aug 10, 2012 from []

7 things you should know about Podcasting. (2005). Educase.com. Retrieved 10:04, August 10, 2012 from []

Dunn, J (2011). //The Teachers Guide To Using YouTube In The Classroom//. Retrieved from []

7 things you should know about Facebook ll. (2007). Educase.com. Retrieved 08:26, August 9, 2012 from []

7 things you should know about Twitter. (2007). Educase.com. Retrieved 07:45, August 10, 2012 from []

7 things you should know about Youtube. (2006). Educase.com. Retrieved 09:05, August 10, 2012 from []

School. (2011, December 6). //YouTube for Schools: Join the Global Classroom Today!// (YouTube) Retrieved from []