Blog Post #5

There are many different Web 2.0 tools that teachers use in their classrooms. Many are useful depending on the grade level or the subject they are teaching. As a student I know a couple of the most useful tools that helped me out that my teachers used were youtube, powerpoint, and google apps. With youtube my teachers was able to show us videos about whatever subject we were talking about. This is helpful because sometimes it is nice to hear the material being taught to me by different people so if I didn't exactly understand what the teacher was saying, I got another perspective. Also if you find a good youtube video, the material can be presented in a fun and easy way of interpreting it. Powerpoint is also helpful because this way the teacher can put the information on a slide show so the students can see the material and not just hear them talk about it. This is very useful for students who are more visual learners rather than auditory. Some tools that I don't find helpful in a classroom setting is different types of social media platforms like twitter. I don't think students really use it when it is there. If they have a question on an assignment they are more than likely not going to tweet for help. Also when you are dealing with middle school and high school, it can be taken as unprofessional. I think students need to be responsible enough to look on portal, or whatever website the school has, and check for their assignments. I think by a teacher having twitter to put announcements up, it takes away that responsibility from the students and doesn't really help them.

I definitely will be using google docs in my classroom when teaching. I love that with it you can log in on any computer and you will have all your notes, assignments, powerpoint, etc. right there for you. There are many different tools within google docs that you can use and still have them in the same place instead of having to use a bunch of different softwares. For example, you can choose from a word document, a power point, a spreadsheet, etc. and it all saves to you google docs folder. It also is a great tool to share with other teachers. You can start a word document, share it with other people, and they can add or edit things in the document. This is a great way to share information and ideas with your coworkers!

I think Cloud Computing will be one of the most successful tools in education. Like I was saying before using the example of google docs, it is very helpful to teachers and students. Students will be able to have all their things in one common place, so if they needed to work on something at home and then you decided to start working on it in class, they can just log on and use it. The students will also be able to share their assignments with teachers at any given time so they can read it, make edits, and help make sure they are on the right path.