Blog Post: Thing 9

Blog Post: Thing 9 – Exploring Web 2.0 Tools: Write about the five tools, Nings, or websites you found that will be useful in your teaching. What did you like or dislike about the tool? What were the site’s useful features? What tools can you use in your classroom or library? How can these tools be used?

I am a big fan of social networking. I grew up in Illinois and now live in SD, so it is important to me to be able to communicate with friends and family that I do not see very often. It is a huge bonus that through social networking I can do it for free. I have also used social networking to communicate with students over the summer and throughout the year. I have used Instant Messenger with online students and find it to be a huge time saver vs e-mail. I can help them with their problems instantaneously.

The social networking that I have used and currently use are:
1. Facebook
2. Instant Messenging
3. Twitter
4. MySapce

I have not used Nings nor did I know what they were. After learing about them in this lesson I could see how they could be useful in my career. I plan on signing up for an account today and learning more about them.

I would have to say that of the social networking tools that I have already used the one I did not like the most was twitter. I was surprised that on: http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0#cat_90

Twitter won 1st place for Socail Networking. The reason I did not like Twitter is to me Twitter is the worst part of FB. I hate on FB how people post every non important thing they are doing like I am going to take a nap, or watch a soap...who really cares! To me that is all twitter is people are sharing with others every non important thing that they are doing. I am too busy to read all that non-sense. Maybe I did not give twitter a chance and maybe I am completly wrong with what its capabilities are.

The website that I really liked about web 2.0 for teachers is:
http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listweb20s.html
It is a great place for teachers to go to as a directory to get to many more educational web 2.0 sites.