Thing 11: Web 2.0 Tools

I chose to explore Google Earth to determine firsthand the excitement others express.  This tool creates an awesome experience and is easily versatile for students of any age.  Visual learners will enjoy bringing text to life in a virtual world to portray different elements of the real world.  Google Earth brings new ideas of how to instruct students in understanding the elements of settings.  When used as a classroom teaching tool, Google Earth can help integrate different content areas.  The world's geographic information is at our fingertips.

Another Web 2.0 tool that I explored last year was Socrative.

“I know one thing, that I know nothing.”

The philosopher Socrates believed that we cannot know anything with absolute certainty, but we can feel confident in certain things.  Many of his traditions are still evident in our world and classrooms today.  A recent technological trend in the learning environment is the use of digital response systems.  Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their students through a series of grade-appropriate educational exercises and games via a web browser.  It can be downloaded as free "app" (application).  With this software program, teachers can engage students in fun exercises that track individual of group performance.  Teachers can enjoy the energy of the moment and view the results online or have it emailed to them by the program.  The teacher device web access address is http://t.socrative.com.  Student access http://m.socrative.com.