Blog Post 5

     Web 2.0 tools that are extremely useful in the classroom include blogging sites, Twitter, and YouTube. Blogging sites allow teachers to have quick communication with all students at once, and also allow the students to send feedback right back to the teacher. Twitter allows instant communication between teachers and students as well. Twitter would be more useful for quick updates or reminders, while blogging would be used more for homework assignments and other extensive communication that would require more than 140 characters. Equipment that is necessary to use for computer education would be keyboards, a monitor, and a mouse.A useful piece of periphery equipment would a digital camera or a video camera. These tools would help students write blogs on current events, daily journals, science projects, etc. The most useful periphery tools, I believe, are tools that assist in the class room, such as speakers or projectors. These tools help create an all around learning experience in the classroom and allow students to better understand the lesson at hand.
      One Web 2.0 tool that would be useful in class would be the website Storybird. Storybird allows students to write and publish their own stories online. Students can share these stories with their fellow classmates, their teacher, and their family. Storybird encourages students' writing capabilities in a fun environment that makes them seem like "real writers" because they get to publish their story on the web.
      Storybird is a fun and safe tool to use for students because teachers can easily watch their students' progress. Parents can also monitor their children's work from any computer if they have the log in access. So they can watch their child's writing abilities progress, as well as watch the child's online safety and Internet habits.  http://storybird.com/
       From the concept map assignment I learned that creating a map is not easy. Not only is it difficult to actually figure out the tools and website necessary to physically construct the concept map, but it also requires thinking ahead and mental planning. Concept maps show how all the information is connected and the causes and effects of one piece of information on another. This requires the creator of the concept map to have to fully understand what causes what in order to make a legitimate concept map that could be helpful to others.