Blog journal 5

Web 2.0 tools that would be useful in the classroom would be YouTube because it has plenty of videos that can be used for educational purposes such as tutorials and simulations. Twitter could be used specifically for a class as a way to share ideas with your peers and send feedback.  Blogs are also Web 2.0 tools that can be used in a classroom setting to keep track or log experiences with classmates and share what has been learned in an easy way. Diigo is another resource used by classes to bookmark useful websites and share them with other members in the class. It allows students to write short notes and descriptions about the website and the tags make it super easy to find a website you're looking for. Out of these tools, twitter could be the least effective because students could very easily become distracted and follow accounts that are not relevant to the course.

One web 2.0 tool that I most likely will use while teaching would be MangaHigh. Its a free website that makes learning fun!  As someone who isn't the best at math and does not know if I will be able to teach it as well as I would like, MangaHigh would make it easy and fun to teach math concepts through games for all grade levels. It would especially be helpful when teaching first graders because I feel like learning through games will keep them focused, interested, and motivated to learn more.

I think that the SmartTable holds a lot of promise for future classrooms. I imagine a multitouch display desk that a group of students can work on together would be so cool and efficient. Whether the students are working on individual parts of an assignment or working together on a project, the SmartTable would allow students to use new technology in a way that seems like just an upgraded version of what they already do. It could be used for group projects and easy collaboration. 

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