Web+2.0

Throughout time the sharing and the access of information has changed tremendously. Now, the possibilities of what we can do with the internet are endless. As teachers, there are so many resources for presenting information to students in various ways that we have no excuse to having boring presentations (unless the information we are presenting is boring…just kidding J ). Also, with the use of the web we have the power to finding various methods to teaching several types of students. The first resource that we have to make our power point presentations more interesting and more complex than the standard presentation is called Prezi.com. Prezi is an amazing site because you can click or zoom all over the presentation to add information and develop presented information. Also, with the use of Prezi you can scale and size information on your presentation. Finally, Prezi is exceptionally useful because one can move and drag information around the slides to make a more comprehensive, organized story line on a presentation. So, with all the benefits noted above, Prezi is a very helpful tool to use when making a slide presentation because it takes less time and frustrating power to make an interesting presentation than just through power point. In my classroom, I plan on using Prezi for teaching all the information that does not need to be fully written out and described, for example math. Math would be a difficult subject to explain through sides because it is a step by step process that needs to be written out in sequence. I would also love to use prezi for fun topics such as astronomy and biology. Having bubbles of information with cool layering will further make the topics look exciting. A second resource that is extremely helpful for teachers is slide.com. Slide.com is great because it assists teachers is making the presentation of pictures more interesting and animated. Upon entering the site I was bedazzled by the images displayed on the home screen. There were sparkles, the image had lots of color, and the image was moving around in a puzzle like manner. Adding elements like sparkles, movement, layering, mixing, sliding, swirling, bubbling will be a helpful weapon for teacher’s presentation of images in class because it will engage and enrapture the students. I can use slide.com with the history and science portion of the curriculum. For example, I would live to have sparkly and colorful slide shows of anatomy of the cell for my students. A lot of subjects in biology have sequence steps in how certain things are formed. Having slides that are animated and full of various effects (such as sparkling) will lead the students to be more engaged in the material. Along with having interesting presentations and images, students will be more engaged in learning when teachers also utilize Second Life. Second Life is incredible because it’s a 3D simulated world online that students can actually see. Second life is useful because students or teachers can develop characters that explore. This site is great for students who are homeschooled, or needing to do their homework at home because it still has the element of interpersonal engagement that would exist for children in school. With a developed world in this second life, children and anyone using the site will actually get to explore and be in the world without actually having to leave their seat. The teacher could develop a curriculum or certain segment of information for children to learn about in this 3D world. So, with Second Life children can navigate the educational world that you have developed for them and they in turn can communicate with other students. When I teach geography I plan on developing a world on Second Life. I think that it would be so amazing if the students can explore the worlds on the information that I present. Also, I could have students get together in small groups and create Second Life worlds of several different cultures and present the information to their peers. In addition to having interesting presentations and a 3D world in which the students can be engaged in, the use of podcasts will also be useful. There are many events in one’s life that will make it difficult for a student to make it to class. Podcasts are essentially the recordings of the teacher’s voice while the teacher is teaching the class. Podcasts are usually associated with iTunes and other apple devices, but they also be made and listened through other audio media programs. Having podcasts available for the students that miss class will be extremely helpful because the student will still be able to learn the material that the other students learned even though they were unable to make it to class. It is really beneficial to have podcast versions of the lectures taken during class because it gives the students a chance to pay attention during class and focus on the media presentation. Also, podcasts are helpful because the students can write down additional information that they missed writing down during the actual classroom presentation. In my classroom, I plan on podcasting the information on English, history, and science. Math would be a very hard subject to learn though only audio instruction so I will not podcast the topic. The three noted above topics can be very difficult to understand, and by giving the students access to lectures again will greatly improve their performance. Also, having those three subjects podcasted will be useful for parents who want to keep up with their children’s classroom curriculum. Lastly, I would like to utilize the use of a blogger. A blogger is essentially a journal that is written via the internet. A person can log onto their blog site, write about their thoughts and the information is available to all who subscribe to their site. So, a teacher can have their lectures can have their students actually carry out a discussion and interact with each other upon response to their blogs. For my class I think that having the students blog their thoughts will be helpful in them reciprocal learning the material being presented in the classroom. In my classroom, I would like to have the students blog their thoughts on the assigned books they have to read for literature. For example, I could have the students read __The Giver__ and then they could write their thoughts and feelings they get from reading the book. Having an online journal will help theses students visually see what their fellow peers think about the book and help them understand the book from many different viewpoints. By reading about the various perspectives of their assigned books, the students will be able to discover the book on a deeper level as well. Truly, there are so many helpful tools that a teacher can utilize to improve classroom presentations. In my classroom, I plan on utilizing prezi.com, slide.com, second life.com, podcasts, and blogging sites. The use of the aforementioned tools will help the students be more engaged and learn the material from many different methods.