Web+2.0

=What do I think of Web 2.0? = Knowing more about the world. Kids are global citizens now, even in small-town America, and they must learn to act that way. Mike Eskew, CEO of UPS, talks about needing workers who are "global trade literate, sensitive to foreign cultures, conversant in different languages"--not exactly strong points in the U.S., where fewer than half of high school students are enrolled in a foreign-language class and where the social-studies curriculum tends to fixate on U.S. history.(Time Magazine)

I’m convinced that Web 2.0 will contribute greatly to the success of learning in the 21st century as well as in my classroom. I expect to be incorporating universally designed lesson plans into standardized curriculum with the goal of teaching core subject material to a diverse population of students. The point of a creative universal presentation is the ability to access visual, audio and interactive tools to obtain the highest level of instruction possible. Even first-graders at Stanford begin to use PowerPoint and Internet tools. Students actively apply the lessons in foreign language and culture by video-conferencing with sister schools in Japan, Africa and Mexico, by exchanging messages, gifts and joining in charity projects. (Time Magazine) ||

The first step in creating is to have the ability to document thoughts and ideas by writing word documents and designing presentations. I’ve experimented with a few sites and liked Google docs the best. (Google Accounts) This site is easy to use and only requires login information. The students can use the initials of their first and last names to create an email address from a free service such as (Google Accounts), create word documents or presentations directly from the classroom and share them with the other students. ||= I’ll teach students how to explore the internet for images that are copyrighted for general use by using a safe site comparable to stock.xchang (StockExchange) to develop slide shows for their classmates. Slide shows are an exciting challenge and are quite interesting to watch. Sites like (Slide) can incorporate both creativity and ideas of the students with the standardized content required. These productivity tools integrate technology into the classroom, develop life-long skills and keep the interest of the students. ||

I will start to integrate Web 2.0 tools into the classroom by studying their current devices if any, and by starting at the beginning.

 Children with visual impairments can use browsers adapted to their special needs. Libbraille is a computer shared library which makes it possible to easily develop for Braille displays. It provides a simple API to write text on the display, directly draw dots, or get the value of keys pressed on the (Braille keyboard). ,text/symbols to synthesized or digitized audio, speech to text convertors, close captioning creators and synchronizers, smart phrases and next word predictors, screen magnifiers, gesture recognition are all examples of these alternate/assistive accesses. (InfoSystems) Interacting with their classmates and teacher is an important skill for students to develop. Wikispaces opens the communication gap between all the members of the classroom. (WikiSpaces) Students can track their projects, submit them for grades and share them with the student body all in one application. A student can invite others to comment on their work and be invited to comment on other work they review. This can be an exceptional learning tool in learning from their peers. Another interesting tool I found is Raven (WikiSpaces). Use Raven to create fully scalable vector art appropriate for any media, print or video. Children can draw their ideas to design comic strips, posters, logos etc. This can be used for a number of assignments from designing graphs and charts to track, storyboards to build and conceptionalizing. This is a fascinating tool for drawing with your voice. (ZeFrank) Students with physical impairments can join in the fun of drawing and putting their imaginations to paper. This would also let mainstream learners understand the problems some exceptional learners face on a regular basis. All in all, I see no benefit in continuing on our current path in educational instruction. Technology is the next phase to education in the classroom today. Students need to know the difference and the rewards of the technology available in order to reach their full potential in the future as world citizens and we as educators should not be the barrier. Let us all take the next step together.