Web+2.0

http://seesmic.com/ I have started my first field experience this semester and am currently observing at a middle school in down town Denver. I never thought I would see this, but the children are actively using their phones in the classrooms. They are on them to find google sites, to look up information and to interact with one another. The teachers don’t seem to mind this at all and even encourage it in some cases. Seesmic.com is a great site because it integrates twitter and videos in one place. For instance if I need to get something out to my children in my classroom about an assignment I can instantly send them the video, and whatever information they might need along with a tweet of the assignment instantly. This is also a great tool to use for children that miss school. Children today are so connected to the internet that there is no reason that they should miss homework assignments. Seesmic would be a useful tool for teachers to make sure that the children are able to get their assignment on time, the same day as the children that were able to make it to class.

http://vyew.com/s/ Wow this is a really great site to play around in. It happens that teachers are unable to come to school one day for one reason or another. They either hope and pray that they get a substitute that can actually teach them what they need to know and do for the day, or the teacher can use this site. The substitute can just put this up on the large screen and the children can interact with it and the lesson. They can put up a power point, they can record their voice, the children can interact with the teacher with questions in a real time chat room. I also believe that the teacher can have teacher/tutor time outside of the classroom for extra help if needed. I would hope that most teachers would want to help the children learn the material the best way possible and if they needed some extra help to do it this is a great tool to use. Another great feature of this site is that the information you put up can stay up as long as you want/need it to and the children can go back to it and look at it again if need be. I know substitutes try do their very best when they come into the classroom to keep things moving forward, but it is so hard with them just being in their for a day or two at the most, and each day they are in there is valuable learning time that the children could be losing. Trying this is a tool could save time and energy for the teacher, the children and the substitute.

http://www.teachers.tv/ As a teacher it is very important that when we assign homework that the children are getting their information from reliable sources that they can trust. This site is one that was made by teachers, to help teachers and their students. Children can literally type up anything in a search engine and get hundreds of thousands of “hits” of information. This information can’t always be trusted or believed to be true. There are certain places that you don’t want the children to go to get the information. This is one site that you can send them to, to watch videos to get the information they might need for reports, presentations, power points they will make for class. This site has different stages of videos to watch for the different ages of the children, they also have different categories so that if you need something specific to math, they can search engine it and find exactly what they are looking for. The information that we present in our class also needs to be factual and going to this site can help make sure that we are not sharing misinformation.

http://www.aypwip.org/webnote/ Depending on the school you are working for and the income level of the school this may or may not be a great site to you. One reason I looked at it and really liked it is because you can write your notes in a program and then share them with other students that may have had to miss class that day. That keep everyone current and on the same information which is helpful to both the teachers and the students. I do understand that though that not every child has access to a computer to write their notes on. That being said the teacher can upload her notes to this program that she shares with the students in the classroom and send the link to the other children that may have missed so they can review and look over the notes for themselves. The other great feature that this site has is that you can take the notes on any computer and you can view the notes or take additional notes from any other computer. So it is not necessary for the children to have access or the teacher to have access to the same computer every single time to get the notes that they have made.

http://www.what2learn.com/ What teacher wants to spend his/her time writing different quizzes and exams all the time, or having to grade them all the time. This site is a great way for teachers, parents, students, and administration to look at the success of the children quickly and efficiently. The children are allowed to take the quizzes at their own pace, at their own time, they are automatically graded so the children or whoever is allowed to see knows how the did immediately giving the students positive reinforcement immediately instead of having to wait until the teacher has had time to grade them all. The children can even create their own games and leagues to help each other and to study with each other for big upcoming exams. I think this site is a wonderful site for children so that they may be able to “play” their way into better grades. In fact I am using right now at this very time using in my college courses a program similar to this where all of my homework is done online. I can see what I got immediately and it is set up so that I can try three full times to get the highest score and than they take the average of those three scores of your last two scores are higher then the first one. Knowing what I got right away and being able to pace myself on this homework has really helped in this class as there is not so much pressure.

http://www.photovisi.com/ The last site that I really like is this image site. I have known several teachers in my past and I hope to do this as well when I become a teacher is to do a slide show at the end of the year with all the children in it to show them the progress that they made over the year, to show them the friendships they had over the year. It is like digital scrap booking that you can create for the children that they can have on their computers at home if they so wish to see it again, and that they can share with family and friends. This site may not be a great site for a teacher to use to help the students learn anything, but it is a great way for the teachers to show the students how much they loved having them in their room, and how much they meant to them. Especially for those children that may not have a lot of memories of their childhood this is something they can keep for a lifetime that allows them to remember their special moments! It honestly might be a little time consuming for the teacher to get it all put together especially in the secondary education as they have more kids and classes, but I really do think it is something they need to share with their students to show them how much fun they had during the year.