WEB 2.0

How will I use Wikis and Blogs with my students?

I think that Wikis and Blogs would be helpful for my Learning Disabled Sped students. It would be a great way for them to express their fellings and show understanding of my lessons. Many of my current students have social disorders and have a hard time speaking in groups or even one on one. Some other students have disorders such as disgraphia or dyslexia and they have a hard time writing with pen and paper. Many of them use keyboards and computers for written assignments. I think that Blogs would be a great way for them to express themselves and to create a computerized record of their learning processes. For example:

Student A has Aspergers and is extremely intelligent but is largely nonverbal in groups. He will use a blog to show his understanding of the concepts from the reading lessons. Other students can make comments and they can have discussions in the comments of the blog. I can view the blog and give him a grade based upon his blog and the discussions that he has with his classmates in the comments.

What do I think about Social Bookmarking? Would it be useful for me and my students? Why? How? Am I interested in creating a Voice Thread? Why? Why not?

I like Social Bookmarking. I really like the idea of having many links available to me in a simple, easy to locate format. The teachers in my school district already use a system similar to this within our network. I am going to suggest this to my mentor teacher as a way for us to share links within the Special Ed department within our district. We can then share the links with each others students so that they can use relevant sites at home and at school. I think it would also be a great idea to allow the parents of our students access and the ability to bookmark sites that may be relevant to helping their children.

I think that Voice Thread is a neat concept. I do not think that I would use it for my Elementary Special Education students though. I think it would be perfect for 7th-12th grade or college students. It appears to be entirely too complicated for Elementary Special Ed students be successful using. It may be something that a teacher could use if they were going to have an extended abscence such as maternity leave. This would keep her connected with the students.

What do I think about Tapped in? Have I explored it? Do I think it would be useful?

I had never heard of Tapped in before this assignment. It appears to be a decent site, however it is not very user friendly. I had a hard time navigating it and it appeared to just have chat rooms and lots of links to things that I could find simply by Google-ing. Personally, I do not think that I would ever use this site. I think that I would rather just use Google or talk to co-workers and friends for ideas rather than trying to navigate this site.

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