Web+2.0

The variety of tools in the box known as Web 2.0 seems to incorporate an extremely vast array to the learning modes of all students. That is to say that Web 2.0 can approach different learning styles simultaneously while covering a single topic of study. Some applications are for presentations, giving the instructor a visual engagement with their audience that would not be available through older means of display. Lectures do not need to become a passive activity for the students but rather an appealing draw into the subject. A continuous involvement can then be maintained through animation, audio incorporation, and through active participation. By following a scaffolding guide, Web 2.0 can be used as a tool that involves every student in the class. The older system of approach involved the teacher using their bag of tricks to speak to every student and their learning styles while encouraging engagement. This meant for the most part the teacher having to use the blackboard for illustrations of their topic as they follow from a book or have to give over the information directly. With using this integrative means of education, one could approach the student directly, understand where their knowledge of the topic is and build upon that directly. Web 2.0 could be used to reach the entire class as a whole or reach a student individually and create a personalized learning program. One tool I found immediately when exploring the resource page ( http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispachttp://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/ es.com/ ) of the “cool tools for schools” web page was under the creativity tools tab. Within this tab was a large variety of interactive games mostly that is directed to expand the user’s creative thinking, puzzle, and problem solving. The one that I explored in depth was the Samorost 1 game. Here the user is a small character exploring a world on an alien space ship in a plot to change its course from colliding with another ship. The way that it works is by getting the character across the screen by using what is available from the environment. An example was after landing on the next screen I had to click on different objects to make them move or elicit their set action. In this particular screen I had to click on the fishing pole, which reeled up a fish, once the fish was on land I clicked on the adjacent house. A small character came out, cooked, eight, and tossed the fish bones outside. Then I clicked on a big bird, which flew around but had to direct him to the fish bones that he picked up and carried. Once I had done all that my character could then jump up as the bird flew by and hold onto the fish bones and was carried to the next screen where the next puzzle started all over again. The user is encouraged to explore this artistically designed environment and think about the different things that need to occur in a certain order to move the character along. I would use this puzzle in my own science class to practice creative thinking skills when solving a step-by-step problem. Using what they know about something to then build on top of that and create a desired outcome. While I would be inclined to use the Samorost 1 game in to have students work independently, I would first want to present new information to my students and for this use some presentation tools. Animoto allows for music, video, and photos to be displayed in a highly animated fashion. I could create a video presentation which I could post on the web and even bring the parents into their student’s learning. New information can be presented with text, music, pictures, and videos. I could use for this a series of slides when presenting a new topic to give the textual understanding such as definitions. From there I could build upon that and provide examples of pictures to give students a relatable knowledge. Next I would incorporate videos that would give contextual understanding of how other people have done a particular experiment for example. This way I could show how different approaches can be used to produce the same outcome, something that happens a lot in science. If I wanted to really incorporate a self made video I would go to a specialty program such as Clipgenarator or Jumpcut. I can use this software to edit my own self-made videos that I could then present to the class. This allows me to gather video from other outside sources in the field, such as a real chemistry laboratory when teaching about chemical experiments, and present them to with a focus to the students. With this I could include music, edit my video for my needs, and mostly include captions. If I was to present an experiment to the class that they had to do I could first show them how I was able to do in a well designed video presentation. This could save lots of class time and include needed information that might be left out had I have to verbally repeat the instructions. One thing that I feel needs to happen in education, especially with science, is personal discovery and research. Rather then providing the information to students it is helpful for them to learn how to find their needed information on a topic. Even better, would be for the student to explore an interested topic of their choice, which can further their engagement and relate their topic with others. Allowing for students to jump onto a computer and start surfing the web can be vast and unreliable. That is why using research tools such as Wolfram Alpha, FindHow, Spezify, or Yolink can help to refine a research in a topic and bring the user to trusted and reliable sources. Using these tools in self guided learning can be focused on the incorporation of other learning. Like if you are teaching graphing techniques, the student could then go find a trend in a related field of their interest and use that information to present it in a graph or chart that they create, and use other graphing tools such as Grapholite, Cartle, or Createagraph. In all education fields I have found it more important than all others to enact education through collaborative learning. Allowing students to learn with each other allows for them to share their techniques and styles to give a better rounded knowledge of their own learning. Often times in science class it is too restrictive for whatever reason to have students conducting experiments individually, so to put them into groups and have them work together is usually the case. With collaborative tools such as Google docs, Crockdoc, iNetWorld, and Justpaste.it students can work together on one single project or report. I have used tools like Google docs with other students to create a PowerPoint presentation which was then presented to the class. Through this we were able to all work on a few slides of the PowerPoint for the information that we knew better. We also were able to talk through instant messenger and come up with a unified thesis for the document part of the presentation. Students can even work on their assignments outside of school and at home which again is great to help show the parents what their students are learning. The scaffolding model now using Web 2.0 is not a hierarchy of the students working to become like the teacher. Rather both teacher and student are incorporated into an integrated learning style that is active for both parties. By keeping students active and engaged learning becomes relative process that students can become a integral part of.