Blog Post #5

The Web 2.0 technology that I think is the most useful would have to be class blogs. No matter what the class, with maybe the exception of math, students and teachers can share their ideas with one another. I think this is also a great way to check if students are doing the readings assigned in class based on what they put in their blog posts. You can tell by how much detail, or lack of, is put into the post. This could also be used as a way of awarding extra credit to the student or students who how exemplary work. As for Web 2.0 that I don’t find useful, YouTube is one of them. Nowadays you don’t fully know what is accurate and what isn’t. I think it is better to find credible videos elsewhere. To use these tools, classrooms and the students’ homes need a PC or laptop. Even a handheld device, such as an iPhone or tablet would work because there is a keyboard. The only potential problem would be that a student wouldn’t be able to afford the technology required to post a blog post or watch a video on YouTube.

            I’m planning on teaching early childhood so I don’t know how much technology would be used in the classroom, but if I were teaching middle school or high school I would use Weebly to get the blog post ball rolling. When I was in middle and high school we never used blogs as a way of communication; it wasn’t until I got to college that it became apart of my everyday class expectations. I think that it is important for students to learn how to put their thoughts on a forum for other people to read because they will have to do it eventually.

            I chose Weebly because it is an easy way to get started on blog posts. When you set of your account, it walks you through how to post anything you want and how to separate them into pages. I think this is a great way to get my students’ toes wet with blogs and discussions outside of class. I will also have them comment on their peers’ posts so that they can learn to keep a thought going. This will also help them learn how to critique one another and better their own writing. http://www.weebly.com/?c=mkt_w_nwk:GoogleSearch_cat:Website_type:Branded_camp:G-S-Website-Branded-AlphaHT-US_ag:Weebly_adid:ad008_lpid:000_FunnelTest:none&viq=CAK:257473334|15054213254|weebly_adid:70819320014&gclid=CJ6JycTQvcgCFdgNgQodu_MDvA

  Because of the concept mapping assignment, I learned how to organize a bunch of information so that it is accessible and easy to learn. I actually had a hard time with this assignment, to be completely honest. I wasn’t sure how to connect everything and not make it look chaotic. This assignment definitely posed as more of a challenge for me, so I know there are a lot of areas where I could improve.  I’m not exactly sure where I would use this in the classroom since I want to teach such a young age, but I know I could use this in the rest of my classes and if I decide to go to grad school, I could use it there too.