Wiki2.0

Exploring wiki2.0!

The first place I visited was twtpoll which allows for people to create online pools and surveys. This site is intended for all audiences. and can be used by students or teachers in the classroom at any grade. I thought this site was extremely easy to use. All you have to do is click the buttons on the top of the page to either create a poll of create a survey! Here is an example of a poll I made that you are encourage to take anytime between now (4-12-2013) through next year. This can be a useful tool in the classroom. One idea I had for this site was to take polls on how well my students understand the content I am teaching. Each student can complete a poll or survey and I can review the results and determine what material needs to be covered more thoroughly. Another way this can be useful is to create a poll for classroom management. For example I can discover what type of snack the call would want on a special day, students knowledge of classroom rules after opening week, and other student preferences for how the class is ran. This site was super easy to use which is its major perk. The only thing that didn't enjoy about the site is that the amount of advertising was extremely annoying

The second place I discovered using wiki2.0 was Sweetsearch.The purpose of sweetsearch is to give students a reliable place to find research for their classes. Each website that is accessed through this website has been approved by a research team, librarians, or teachers as reliable. This site is specifically targeted at students but the age of the audience is unspecified. The website is set up like the popular search engines used by students already. There is a search bar where students can type their desired topic and press "go" to enjoy academic based findings. That is the major plus to using this site. Everything I searched gave me academic material rather than with a google search where anything could pop up in the results. Other features included on the sweetsearch homepage are a number of tool bars. These included:

• Teaching We Research Skills: Which allows educators and students to learn some effective research skills for academic uses. 
• Sweetsearch For Me: Which is geared towards younger students starting out in their research. 
• Sweet Search Today: This allows students to explore and learn new information daily. 
• Sweetsearch Biographies: Over 1,000 profiles of people students may want to research.
• Sweetsearch Social Studies: A search engine specifically for research in social studies. 

This website can be effectively integrated into the students research habits. It can be introduced as a substitute for google or bing as a academic search engine that will allow students to do more effective research for the classroom. The only downfall is that if a student wants to research a new topic the team of experts approving sites to be included in the results may not have gotten to anything relevant to the topic yet.

The third site I explored using web2.0 was Historypin. This site is described as a place where anyone can go to share historical pictures or stories.  The site collects historical photos to create a digital history of the world. This site is for anyone who has a historical story or picture that can contribute to the site. Sometimes history is thwarted by overwhelming facts, politics, and a disconnect from the time. This site can be used in social studies classroom to help students gain a more personal interaction with history. Students can learn about the Kennedy Space Station in a book or through research but historypin will allow students to be connected to the time. They get a feel, through pictures, of what life was like during that time. A lot can be discovered from historical pictures for example this picture taken November 18 1969 shows children standing around waiting for Apollo 12 to blast off. The children are posing for this picture only hours before the shuttle started its journey to the moon. Students are not only learning the date and specifics about the space shuttle but they can see the popular dress of students, their interactions with each other, and compare these pictures to the type of pictures taken today. For example in this picture I imagine any number of my male peers would probably try and make the space shuttle appear to be a penis by laying down in front of it with a particular camera angle. Does this show that students were more mature during this era? Or were they just more heavily supervised and disciplined? The only problem with this site is that it hasn't grown enough. There needs to be more interaction on the site for it to be useful for all historical times but they have a very good platform that can be used in the classroom to instill some sites of the time to students. 

And the remainder of the term!