Web+2.0+Paper

====**Reflection: For this assignment, I got the chance to explore a neat website (//http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com) //which has a list of free programs on the World Wide WEB 2.0, of which can help teachers in any field to create more fun, organized, interactive and interesting lessons for their students. Some of the programs can also be useful for creating an effective and organized grading system. I am confident that I will use this website when I start teaching in a classroom.** ====

Web 2.0 Assignment July 05, 2011 The evolution of the World Wide Web of the 1990's, to today’s developed version, the Web 2.0, has been a huge improvement to our world of resources, especially in education. As explained in our Week 4 A (Web 2.0) folder, the new features of Web 2.0 are endless for its users. Users can now be part of the World Wide Web, as writers, readers, bloggers, editors, tutors, researcher, do-it-yourself-learners, and plenty of other useful things. Teachers can implement some of the many tools found on the internet. For example, the tools found on the website provided to us in our Week 4 folder, http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com. When I looked through these tools I was amazed at the number and variety that were on this website. Some of the categories I found the most useful to potentially be used in a classroom setting were, Presentation Tools, Research Tools, slideshow tools, audio tools, image tools, drawing tools, organizing tools, Quiz and Poll tools and Creativity tools. Inside these categories I picked five websites that I thought would be most valuable to use in my classroom one day. They were the following, //Jeopardy Labs//, for creating costume jeopardy games; //Slide Share// to upload power points to share with others; //What2Learn//, ready-made interactive quizzes and tests in the format of games; //Olefa//, to make recordings on the internet; and //Sound Recorder//, and Yogile. I believe all of these sites, could help enhance the learning in a number of classroom settings.

// Jeopardy Labs, // is a great site where teachers can either look for or create their own customized jeopardy game with material they want they expect their students to know and/or learn. The site provides templates in which you can put your own material, and also an option where you can browse for ready to play games of random topics. This tool could be used in pretty much any class, as a way to help students study or review information. For example, in a history class this could be used to have students memorize dates and names of a history lesson. Second, is //Slideshare,// which teachers can use to once again, either look for already created power point slides of certain topics or to create their own and share with others on the site. This tool supports ppt, pps, pot,pdf, odp, and users can save slideshows as pdf, doc, rtf, xls ,odt & ods. Again this tool could be used in practically any class, where teacher wants to teach a concept that can be explained by writing, pictures, videos, animations, etc. In a science class where pictures and videos can really help the learner visualize what he or she is learning about, a slide show can come in handy. // What2Learn //, is a website that allows teachers to create tests and quizzes in the form of interactive games. It records student’s records, in order to keep track of their progress. Whatever games you create, you have the opportunity to insert them into your website or online portfolio. In a language class such as Spanish, this tool could be really helpful to make learning a new vocabulary or grammar fun and interactive. Also, this could help the teacher keep track of their students’ improvement in the language.

// Olefa Sound Recorder // is another useful tool on the web, which allows you to record sound, but it is so simple to use that even a little kids can learn how to use it. The audio files recorded through this site can be saved as .wav or .ogg. This tool is great when a teacher has to assign a project in which students have to record an audio file, and don’t want their students to go through the trouble of downloading a whole program to just use it once or twice. Another great example of when this tool would come handy is a music, where the teacher needs to listen to the student sing, in another setting other than the class where the student might get nervous and not perform as well. Finally, the last tool I thought would be really useful is, Yogile; a tool used to create online photo albums and share with selected people. Since the albums are protected by passwords, the use of this site is a bit safer than regular photo sharing websites. This tool could be used in a language class where the teacher, asks students to take pictures of places or people, and have them describe the photos in the language being learned. The students could create their albums and share with the class, their pictures as well as their descriptions. This way, students could take pictures of whatever they are interested in and practice their language skills by describing their photos.

All of these learning tools can serve as great help to teachers of all subjects. The fact that they are free and for the most part easy to use is features. I am very much looking forward to incorporating these tools into my lesson plans. //http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com// is a great site to find a variety of these helpful tools in the classroom