Blog Journal 3

1. The web 2.0 tools that I use everyday are Facebook, Youtube, Wikipedia, and Pandora. I think that most everyone is aware of the first three tools: a social networking website, a video website, and a free online encyclopedia. The fourth website, Pandora, is a free online radio website in which you type in one of your favorite artists and they create a radio channel with similar artists. If you do not like one of the songs that they play, then you can you can click the thumbs down button and it will take that into account for the next song and vice-versa if you like the song. It is a great way to listen to music as well as find new artists of interest. I would say that these websites tend to be used for fun and are not exactly used with the intention of efficiency. However, I have used Wikipedia as a way to educate myself on topics that may be in the news in order to get the gist of the idea without reading several news articles. I have also used Youtube as another resource in class presentations with much success.

2. In my English classroom, I would like to use programs such as blogs wherein my students can have literature discussions at home for homework and then can come to class better prepared and able to articulate their interpretations of the text. I think that the blog could replace the traditional journal as a free-writing activity, and yet because it is public, I think that the quality in writing will jump much like the English teacher using DyKnow vision in her class analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne. I am also interested in Podcasts where students could listen to programs about literature and then perhaps create their own Podcast as a final project. I think that in the next decade, technology will become more and more prevalent in the school systems. I have heard that “Nooks” will someday replace textbooks, which will help the class shift from one story to the next at their fingertips. I think the use of computers in the classroom will eventually replace pen and paper. I think that there will be teachers who may resist the use of technology, but they will be in the minority. If I were to guess, it will be a different style of teaching in which the students can guide the learning with digital project and more interactive learning.