Week 5

There was such an abundance of resources available at our fingertips in the Web 2.0 tools, I had a hard time picking just two. Of the many resources that I located, two of my favorite Web 2.0 sites were http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ and http://www.wix.com. These were favorites because of the free resources and the wealth of instructional information available for classroom use. The freetech4teachers site is a great score, especially for teachers that encourage the use of technology in their classrooms. The infographic information is a powerful widget. Teachers can use the infographic widget in a Wiki space page or in a podcast made available for students. This Blog was packed with educational content that is useful to educators. I found content that exceeded my expectations. There was information that explained data storage device terms such as byte, megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte. These seem like terms that one should already be familiar with, but the infographic widget helps visual learners remember the meaning of the terms. A post for using Google Maps for instructional purposes is available, as well as information for clipping and sharing parts of websites, which could be used in a classroom setting when saved and presented as part of a lesson, especially when you’re not necessarily on the web this source is available. The website was easily accessed from my iPad. It was easy to use, full of purposeful content, and I felt that the design and organization was appealing to teachers. I was able to navigate to each post and subscribe to the blog for further content discussion. I highly recommend that teachers check out this site if you need free, new, and innovative ideas for the classroom
At the wix.com site, teachers can easily create a website for classroom use such as posting assignments, school calendars, links to podcasts, Wiki space links, and the numerous activities that a school has happening at any given time. I created an account and was able to choose a template design and layout. The content was good, but not an abundance of templates for educators. As we all know, teachers are masters at modifying to meet their needs, so yes, the site comes highly recommended. I found that scrolling over the templates allows you to determine the template uses (i.e. photography, promotions, education, etc.), template style (i.e. simple, medium, or difficult), Creating an actual websites was only minutes from becoming an actuality because the designer made it simple to select a layout, then begin to edit your site. With Wix Editor, the site creator can crop photos which can be taken from your own or selected from a library provided by Wix, you can add links, animation, effects, add video, change settings, font, and customize the site according to your needs. Wix allows you to add pages to your web design, change, update, and add contact information before and after publishing. I recommend this site because it is user friendly, well designed, and organized. I look forward to reading about the new Web 2.0 tools that each of you can share with me. There are some outstanding tools available, so please continue to share your findings with me and others in the field of education.