Blog Post #5

One possible web 2.0 technology I think is useful in the classroom would be blogs. If I were to teach in a high school I would try to incorporate blogs as part of the curriculum. Blogs are a great way for a teacher to post assignments and homework on. Students can interact with one another on the blog and make homework more of a group project. I would also use YouTube to show the class videos. YouTube has many educational videos that my teachers would show me in high school. The videos offered by YouTube are another great resource for teachers. I do not think that social media like Instagram is appropriate to use in a classroom setting. Instagram would not support teacher professional development because all you can do on Instagram is post pictures and in a classroom setting that could be hard to monitor.

A web 2.0 tool that I would use when I am teaching would be Google Classroom. Google Classroom allows the teacher to distribute assignments, communicate, and work with students over the internet. I find this web 2.0 tool very useful because when I was in high school my teacher would use it all the time to distribute assignments students could easily access their homework. Also, if you missed a day of class it was very simple to make up that assignment because it was all online. With Google Classroom students also have access to Google Docs so assignments that worked on in class can easily be worked on at home. https://classroom.google.com

The technology advancement in chapter 12 that I believe holds the biggest promise for education is cloud computing. Cloud computing holds the biggest promise because it allows students to access their work from any computer or device. So, for example, say a student is working on an essay in class they can save the essay to some form of cloud computing and finish the rest at home. The use of cloud computing allows students and teachers to bridge the gap from assignments at school and at home. Teachers can also use cloud computing to post the daily agendas and course work for students who must miss class.