Delicious

Initially, I was unsure of how Delicious would be useful and helpful to this poverty project. When I signed up I didn't download the addon for Firefox, but after I read the instructions I found that the tool was much easier to use. It was so convenient to be able to easily tag a page while I was browsing through several pages. I also found the descriptions and tags made by others much more helpful when browsing through other profiles. I found that this tool was so much more convenient than a list of weblinks as seen on the wiki page. The interface is initially easy to use from my first impressions.

I think that this would be a great tool to use between students on a class, similar to what we are using now. I feel that if the goals of a course or activity involve gaining internet research skills, that Delicious provides a venue for students to share the resources and provide a little explanation from what they gained from each website. Teachers can also provide students with a list of resources and share these links with their students. As I gain more experience with this web tool I hope to find other ways to make it really useful.

Webinspiration

My first impressions of Web inspiration have all been positive up to this point. I think it's an interesting tool to be able to collaboratively build a concept map as a team. I think that the idea of working as a group to create a concept map. I think the idea of working collaboratively on a concept map is an ideal tool to collaborate ideas but not always necessary if you have classroom time. However I think that this can be a tool to help students outside of class as a reinforcement of the ideas and content discussed in class. Being a classroom teacher of science I think that this tool can be used to review concepts and work as an outside the classroom support system for complex concepts. It would be a helpful addition to a well structured web based class.

Discussion Boards

Something I find amazing about Web 2.0 tools is how addicting they can become. In the past, social networking sights have been addicting just to check on how friends and relatives are doing. But even more recently my experiences with Web 2.0 tools have become an addiction. The discussion board for this course is something that I find myself checking several times a day, to see what new additions and comments are made regarding the most recent topics. It is an easy and convenient method of communication on interesting topics. I use a similar tool in my Advisory classroom which acts as a literacy program and a "homeroom" for students. We have been using Goodreads to have discussions about the most recent books we are reading. I need to find a way to get my students addicted to those discussions as well.

Initial experiences with Web 2.0

Web 2.0 initially started for me with the social networking sites. I remember my time in undergrad when facebook was just becoming popular within colleges. Initially this Web 2.0 site was a very basic personal profiling website in which you could communicate with other students around the country. Since then it has really expanded and increased in capabilities.



Recently I had an interesting experience with Google Docs in a Professional Development meeting at my school. Currently we are meeting in small groups each given a task, mine being developing more student centered practices in our classrooms. Several of my fellow teachers and I were working on a document to organize our findings and we had to edit and access this document at the same time. Using Google docs we were able modify the same document at the same time. I was amazed by this because in previous classes taken at TC my group members and I would be modifying the documents at the same time and we just saved several copies and then had to make sure that all copies were up to date with our information. Google docs made the process so much easier.

I am looking forward to using several different Web 2.0 tools in this class as I am always looking for a new technological tools to help develop my practices and make my teaching life easier.