Web 2.0 Tools.

I was given an assignment by my Education Technology instructor, Mrs. Benton. The assignment is to choose 10 different Web 2.0 tools that I have not learned about in class, and tell how I could use them in my future classroom.

1). Storybird: 

This tool allows students to make their very own digital piece of work. They will get to experience what it is like to be an actual author. This can be used for writing assignments or for spare time writing and creativity assignments. As an instructor, I can create a free account that will manage all of my student's work, make a library of their work and create different assignments. It is private and safe for all students and they can even comment on each other's work, which will teach them about social interaction and digital citizenship. I think this is an extremely neat tool that could be used for a variety of things. 

2). Books:

This tool allows people to search for books or any kind of text. You can simply click on the link to books in Google and it allows you to look through books, magazines, literacy criticism, etc. I think this would be an interesting way to teach student's how to search the web. If I were to give them an assignment over a certain book or other text, they would be able to use this tool in order to find it. 

3). Infoplease:

This is obviously a research tool that can be used in any classroom. In my future classroom, I could let students use this as an alternative to the normal Google or Wiki. They can go to this tool and search for any information I am asking them to. It could be used for research papers, or just any type of paper. I think this would be a good idea just to give student's a larger variety of research tools. With this tool, they are able to search through an atlas, encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, days in history, etc. It's kind of like a library right there on their tablet or computer. A digital library!

4). Questionaut: 

This tool is more of a game, which I think is a good idea for classrooms because you want your kids to stay involved instead of constantly making them do assignments that are simply learning and no fun. This tool gives kids a chance to play a game while learning about English or other subjects. You choose the subject and it gives you a game where the student's can journey through time and learn while doing it. I think this would be awesome for a once a week fun day or something along those lines. Maybe something for good behavior. 

5). Diffen:

This tool is for comparing and contrasting things, which is obviously something that happens quite often in an English classroom. Really, this tool makes it easy for anyone to do so. If I were to give an assignment on comparing and contrasting, the students could use this tool for it. All you do is simply type in what you are wanting to compare and contrast and it loads all sorts of information to do just that. I think this would be something that even I could use for assignments now, and especially once I am making my own assignments. It literally does the job for you! This could save people a lot of time.

6). Studentpublishing:

This tool allows you to actually publish your own work and that of student's. I think this would be an extremely neat way to get the student's more interested in writing assignments. This could spark some serious creativity in my writing classes. If I were to tell student's they were going to create a story and then I was going to publish them and actually hand them their own paper copy of it, they would probably try a little harder on their stories. I would have loved this when I was in school because I loved writing stories, so I would have felt like a real author with this! 

7). PreZentit:

This tool is a way for student's to present their work from assignments I will be giving them. They can work on things alone, or collaborate with other student's anywhere at anytime. They can also download and present their projects without having to use internet connection. I think this would be something different than just doing a normal slideshow or poster board. It would give the student's a new way of presenting their work and working with technology to do so. 

8).FindHow:

This tool is literally what the name says. It is a resource where you can search and find how to do almost anything. This could help students not only in the classroom, but also in every day life. It is always a benefit to know how to do things yourself. Like changing a tire on your car, because you aren't always going to have cell phone service to call someone to help with that flat tire. But my main thinking on using this tool would be for a Speech class. It would be so helpful when writing a speech on how to do something when you could go straight to this tool and look it up and get details on the exact thing you're going to write about. 

9). MyBrainShark:

This tool is used for presenting things and I think it gives a very technological spin on things rather than the normal ways of presenting projects. It allows the student to actually narrate their own presentation instead of having to speak during it in front of the class. They can make their entire project while being their own narrator just like documentary. This would be a neat thing to use if I were to ever give an assignment on documentaries. They can also upload photo albums that talk using their own voice. I think the student's would find this very interesting to use in the classroom! 

10). Penzu:

One of the teachers that I felt like influenced me in high school was my English teacher. She used to make us bring a journal to class every day and write in it. Some days she would give us a topic and other days she would let us freely write about whatever we wanted. A lot of times, I wrote about the things I was going through, but she only read the ones that were assigned. This is a tool that allows student's or anyone to have a personal journal that is on the web instead of having to bring one to class everyday. It is private, so no one else could see it, but it would give student's a way to do things that are assigned and some on their own if they want. Sort of a twist on a discussion board posting.