Thing 15.5 - Twitter

Twitter is an excellent place for a quick post that all of your followers can see. You could create a profile that is specific for you teaching and students could follow you to see your reminders to them such as "test tomorrow. study hard" or "tutorials in the am."

I think that twitter might not be the best place if you have a blog or website that students can follow you on, however, it certainly would be effective at communicating to students.

Thing 15 - Skype

Skype can be used in almost any classroom or library setting. I would recommend that my students use skype or some program similar to complete group projects together. By allowing students to use skype, there is no more reason for students without the ability to drive to be unable to communicate and meet with members in their group. Their group is simply online and they need only to meet at the same time.

Further, a teacher can use sky to communicate with his/her students to answer questions. Though I would certainly be extra careful with this. It would probably be more appropriate to have students post questions to a feed where the teacher can see and then the teacher can upload a YouTube video answering that question. I feel that would be more acceptable than having a student and teacher video conferencing out side of the classroom.

Thing 14 - Podcast

While searching the iTunes educators website, I found a plethora of information in regards to teaching and Texas Educators. Under Mathematics > How Children Think About Math > Geometry with Jane, I found some useful information and tips on how to present mathematical topics in geometry to different students who may not understand one method of presentation. By looking through other people's research on iTune, I am able to discover more ideas for my classroom.

Thing 12 and 13 - YouTube

As I mentioned in my last post when talking about Web 2.0 tools, YouTube is one of the best.

I have searched YouTube and found a link to help with classifying triangles that my students could use for extra help on their homework. This is like having a teacher come home with you.

Further, as I mentioned in my last post, YouTube allows me to upload videos as well. Click on the link to go to my YouTube Channel.

Thing 11 - Web 2.0 Tools

While looking through the list, I noticed YouTube was the first place for uploading videos. There is no doubt that they take first place due to their overall popularity and usefulness. I can see youtube being used constantly in the classroom. Teachers are able to show how to complete a homework problem and then upload it to the web so that students can watch the teachers do the problem at home as they work.

robwiser1's youtube channel

Though I am a math teacher, I do enjoy some good explosions in chemistry and that is what you will find on my channel.

Thing 10 - Online Productivity Tools

Online Productivity Tools are rather amazing. They allow users to use programs such as Word, Powerpoint, excel, pages, numbers, and keynote all online. Though they currently lack the same power that the computer based programs have, they certainly do offer more connectivity between users. At my school, we have begun using google documents which are online productivity tools and I must say that it is nice to occasionally be able to work on a document online on my school computer, go home, and then work on the exact same document in the exact same program on my home computer. As these tools become more powerful, I believe that a massive switch will be made from Microsoft office to online productivity tools.

Thing 9 - Play with Wikis

It was rather interesting to be able to play with wiki's where all the students post to the same place. The only thing that I would consider needing if a tool such as this were to be used in my classroom is for the teacher to have the ability to see all the changes that each individual student makes. This would prevent one student from changing another's ideas in a place that is as easy to manipulate as that wiki was. However, it seems to be an excellent idea.