BP5_201004182_SecondWeb2.0:writeboard

The Web 2.0 tools that are available to learners and teachers are astounding! I’ve played with many interactive collaborate tools recently. I really enjoy the mapping tools and the collaborative word processing sites. I am also intrigued by the collaborative spreadsheets which have so many math and science applications, I feel like an entire class could be devoted to teaching EMDT grad students about them.

While the vast array of Web 2.0 tools could overwhelm the technological noob at first, most of users quickly become adept at using the tools. This is true of one of the most widely used tool, blogging. I am in the process of setting up blog accounts for all of my students so we can do our daily journal entries, in sharable blog form. This is a huge deal for my 4^th and 5^th grade students. They love the thought of having the published work read by their peers. The comment section is the most important of all. From the comments left by students, they bloggers are able to make style and grammar corrections in subsequent entries.

Only a few of my students are in the field test that I am running. Those select few talk about how awesome blogging is and makes the others yearn for a turn. I suggest implementing new programs this way. It makes the students want to participate more and they take it more seriously when it is their turn.

To implement this exciting change in our class, I turned to Edublogs.com, which is working out nicely. We are going to use the blogs to answer our Daily Journal Questions at first, but once we’ve established the routine we are going to branch out and use them in other ways.

The students enjoy using blogs. Cost is low or nothing to use them, and if all that isn’t enough, they also help reduce our carbon footprint (Shimabukuro, 2009).

Shimabukuro, J. (2009). Innovate-Blog: A Step into Blog 2.0. Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 5(2), Retrieved from ERIC database.