WEB 2.0 TOOLS

In this blog post I will be discussing 10 Web 2.0 tools that I can use in my future classroom that will benefit not only myself as a teacher, but my students as well. 

Little Bird Tales

• Little Bird Tales is a Web 2.0 storytelling e-learning tool that can be used in endless ways! It is great for kids of all ages and will assist children who can't read or write!
• It was created to help children's creativity and imagination to broaden while creating unique personalized digital stories that can easily be shared with anyone. 
• Teachers will have more time to focus on teaching thanks to Little Bird Tales' lesson plans that incorporate verbal instructions, voice recordings, drawing, using a keyboard, and much more!

• This tool will allow reading and writing to be re-enforced in my classroom. 
• Digital storytelling will allow my students to express their creativity in a whole new way!
• Little Bird Tales will be a perfect out of classroom assignment for my students.

Penzu

• Penzu is a free online journal that is focused on privacy. 
• You have the option to keep your thoughts to yourself or you can share!
• It is as easy as writing in a diary or notebook and you never have to stress out over losing it! Penzu is available anywhere with internet access! 

• If my students use a Penzu account it will allow me as a teacher to have insight into their thoughts and feelings. I would be able to understand and connect to my students better by knowing more about them in a creative way. 
• Expressive writing allows students to relieve stress. It will be a useful tool to help students learn how to manage their stress. 
• Keeping a journal will help my students in two very important ways. 1. Writing in a journal will help students "working memory." 2. Students will improve their concentration by learning how to focus on a specific task. This will overall help students improve their grades. 

GrammarBook

• GrammarBook is a great source for grammar rules.
•  It is said to be the number 1 source for grammar and punctuation.
• Free online quizzes are available to test your knowledge on English usage. 

• GrammarBook will be very beneficial for my students to use, because it will allow them to not only check their homework for errors, but also because the tool incorporates learning the rules of English and testing your knowledge. 
• The videos offered within GrammarBook will allow students to have access to additional learning on anything from nouns to adjectives to subject/pronoun agreement. The opportunities to learn are endless! 
• Students struggling with Language Arts will have a tool at their fingertips to help improve their grammar problems.

Plagium

• Plagium allows you to paste your written work to a document and the tool will check plagiarism for you!
• It is an easy to use service that is aimed to a broad spectrum of users. 
• Plagium breaks your text up into what they call "snippets" and matches the "snippets" against web content. 

• This tool will allow teachers to worry less about plagiarism knowing students have the access to check their work. 
• Plagium will help students be accountable and will help them learn how to avoid plagiarism. 

Student Publishing

• Student Publishing is a great tool for students to create paperback storybooks .
• Teachers can use this tool to create books where each student is the author and illustrator of the book. It is a great tool for a group project!

• This Web 2.0 tool allows students to create their own published books. 
• It will give students the opportunity to be creative in a whole new way!
• Having a book published will give students the motivation to creatively write on a regular basis! I can just imagine the expression on children's faces seeing their work published!

Chogger

• What is Chogger? Chogger is a free web based tool that allows you to create your own comic or cartoon strip! How cool is that???
• You can use your own photos or you can start from scratch. 
• Chogger allows you to share your comics or cartoon strips with the world!

• My students will love Chogger! I would use this tool for an activity in my Language Arts classroom. I would have my students create a comic all about adjectives.
• In my Social Studies classroom I would use this tool for my students to create a cartoon strip of a historical event. It would allow the students to incorporate their artistic ability! 
• It will be a very creative and exciting way to learn especially for students who learn visually. 

DogoNews

• DogoNews is a safe  resource for current events for children to use.
• This tool is the leading online source for not only current events, but news and non-fictional articles for students and teachers. 
• It is a favorite for teachers in the Language Arts and Social Studies department. 
• Each site and article is reviewed making sure that they are kid friendly. This ensures the content is safe for children to read. 

• This resource will be good for my students because the content is written on a level and that children can understand. 
• I would incorporate this tool in my lesson plan by using it as a source for current events around the world. In some case children write articles in DogoNews so that would be an assignment to consider!

School Wax TV

• School Wax TV is a site with videos approved by educators. These videos are helpful sources for students struggling in a particular subject. 
• These videos are being used in classrooms to help enrich student learning. 
• School Wax TV provides students with the tools they need to be successful.  

• Students can access their text books online! 
• There are great sources for all grade levels for students! 
• Homework will seem easy for students with the access to the many links for all school subjects!

Debate Graph

• Debate Graph is a visualization tool that is designed to help students focus on complex topics. 
• The tool allows students to create virtual spaces where debate can occur. 
• Debate Graph is a unique way to better understand complex issues by having the debate in map form.

• I could utilize Debate Graph in my classroom for online instructions or for assignments on a problem in a written work or historical event. 
• Debate Graph allows students to farther examine topics in depth in a collaborative learning style. 
• It is a wonderful resource for students to evaluate hot topic global issues. Students can allow people to join their debate and receive constructive criticism on the topics. I believe students will analyze topics in a whole new way when using the Debate Graph! It allows students to explore data and research in a fun, unique way!

EasyBib

• Easy Bib is more or less a cheat sheet for citations and bibliographies!
• The tool allows students to cite in the format of their choice whether it is MLA, APA, etc. 
• Easy Bib not only allows students the access to citing, but also the access to resources. It is also used to improve students resource skills. 

• I would incorporate Easy Bib in both my Language Arts classroom and Social Studies classroom to provide students with a fast and easy way to learn citing. 
• Citing sources can be very difficult to learn, but with the help of Easy Bib students will have no excuse for not knowing how to cite! 

Effects of Social Networking

In today's society, social networking is a major part of communication. Many have argued over the pros and cons of social networking, but I personally believe social networking has more of a negative impact on society than a positive one. The negative effects that comes with social networking are too many. According to The Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites social media has caused people to become self absorbed, have short attention spans, and neglect their privacy rights. For some reason, people feel obligated to literally share EVERYTHING about their daily lives on social networking sites especially Twitter. Twitter was designed for that very reason, but is it necessary??? People are becoming too wrapped up in sharing every detail of their lives with other people. Our generation and future generations will become obsessed with themselves and sharing with other people "all about themselves." Social Networking, in my opinion, is teaching not only kids, but adults as well, that being self absorbed is perfectly fine. Another issue that the site addresses is people's short attention spans. "People are condensing everything down to 140 characters or less, so when it comes time to actually read anything longer than that, it takes a change of pace and a change of mindset to do so." Unfortunately, I am extremely guilty of this! Procrastination has become a big crutch in my school work all because I find it hard to motivate myself to take the time needed to study. I would much rather get everything done as fast as WIFI does, but I know that school work requires a lot of devoted time. I rarely spend the time needed to explore information in depth due to my lack of attention span. I blame social networking. 

EASY

NOT EASY

Privacy rights are becoming a popular topic of debate among social networkers. The site I provided above also reveals that Facebook is the leading cause of coercing people to give up personal information. The article points out that people would not voluntarily wear a sign around them with all of their personal information attached. However, people will post about where they work, their birthday, their family, and even where they live and attend school. Although the article only points out that this is a dream for marketers, this is also a dream for predators!!! It is far too easy for predators to have access to your personal information that you WILLINGLY provided!  Until now, people have not been fully aware of the dangers of the lack of privacy, but hopefully with more attention brought to the issue, more and more people will stop providing personal information that gives people access to using it against them. 

Among the many negative effects of social networking there is also a major concern with networking while at work. According to Are Social Networks Good for Job Productivity a recent study revealed that 56% of employer's monitored their employee's use of social networking while on the job. As a result, some employee's were even fired. Clearly, social networking is effecting too many areas of people's daily lives.