Web 2.0 applications are a constant source of wealth for educators, and are something that I use consistently throughout my teaching. When reflecting back on Web 2.0 applications from throughout this course, I reflected on Google Drive and Blogs.
Google Suite is probably one of my favorite resources to use in education. I not only rely on it for my personal documents and documents related to my lessons, but I incorporate it into my students work-pieces. Google Forms allows for a quick access to student thinking, such as exit tickets, while Google Drive allows for a broader range of student thinking. I constantly use Drive for my students writing pieces along with presentations that they create. The major benefit of Google Suite is that it promotes socialization. Students are able to share their writing directly with myself, their parents, or other students. This "increases the enjoyment and motivation for many kinds of work" (pg. 302), which helps students to feel positive about their work pieces. It's always fun to watch the students reflect directly on someone else's work, all while seeing the suggestions and reflections others are placing on their own pieces.
Blogging is another of my favorite Web 2.0 applications. I currently use blogging in 2 ways, one that is used as a classroom communication tool between parents and myself (showing what we've been working on, what's coming in the future, etc.). The other way I currently use blogging is through student blogs. This allows the students to reflect on a discussion lead that I created, but also to reflect on each others thinking. We also open up the blog to other classrooms in our building, which allows "expanded privacy beyond just the classrooms comments." (pg. 303). In a similar lite, I also use LiveBinder for student portfolios, which allows for public access to work for comments and such beyond our classroom walls. It takes time to get them set-up for student use, but the portfolio's that come out of it are always worth the time!
