Blog Post #5

With all the new ways there are to learn in today's classroom, I think that all the Web 2.0 technologies mentioned in the "Web 2.0 in the classroom" podcast would have a positive impact on both learning and teacher professional development. I believe that twitter can be very useful in the K-12 classrooms. Twitter allows for all ages to improve their digital citizenship skills, and can communicate directly with professionals, authors and even other students all around the world. Twitter is also a great way to to get students to summarize concepts by only being allowed 140 characters. For teachers, twitter is a great way to connect with other teachers and professionals while growing their personal learning network. Blogs, like the one I am using today is a great way to encourage students to participate in creative writing, as well as making writing easy and enjoyable for readers. Blogs also allow for easily accessible feedback, as shown in the resource critique activity where we had to analyze and comment on 2 other student's blog posts. Another Web 2.0 tool encouraging collaboration is Wiki, having a monitored wiki site, all students can share different findings, research and writings found on topics being learned in the classroom. Lastly, YouTube is another very useful Web 2.0 tool in the classroom that doesn't use as much student engagement but is still a great tool if used appropriately to incorporate audio and visual examples of the concepts being studied in class. Mindomo is a really interesting concept mapping tool that allows students to visually see how many points all relate to a main idea. It promotes critical thinking through brainstorming while also incorporating technology. There are many different formats that can be used depending on a student's preference. Students can also convert these concept maps into an outline for studying. Even though these digital maps are great for student's to organize thoughts I think this tool could be improved by somehow having hyperlinks to further research of the words placed in each box. This would allow for further student understanding and make creating concept maps through technology more effective than just on paper. Many of the technologies mentioned in chapter 12 will have a great impact on education in the future, personally I believe that out of all technologies Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) hold the biggest promise. As time goes on, the classroom becomes more individualized, although a lot of collaboration occurs with other students and teachers, technology has allowed us to explore more into topics we are personally interested in as well as work at our own pace. I believe it holds so much promise for the future because there are so many ways to create a PLE whether it be through learning management systems such as Moodle, social media or or learning tool apps, there are multiple ways to explore subject areas that interest you and communicate with others throughout the world. Through an ELP students take learning into their own hands to make an individualized curriculum and create their own learning pathway, engage in their interests and share their work. As stated in the text "Personal Learning Environments may well turn out to be the first step in the next major educational evolution."

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