Week5

 Week5

During this weeks lesson I have learned a lot about online communication tools and how to implement them into the classroom. In this blog entry I will discuss the various materials that I have learned throughout this lesson. These will include various websites, informative reading, and explorations of various communication tools. The world is being more connected today with technology than ever before. Everyone uses technology for creating lessons, for research or even doing homework. Therefore, communication can prove very beneficial to the learning landscape and to the tech savvy student.

Teachers should first learn about the various forms of online communication tools before they implement them in the classroom. These include Synchronous and Asynchronous online communication. Synchronous communication involves communication at the same time and Asynchronous communication involves communication that doesn’t have to take place at the same time. Some asynchronous examples include emails, blogs and discussion boards. Some synchronous examples include a chartroom, whiteboards and web conferencing. It is important for teachers to understand how they want to integrate online communication in the classroom.

I have learned of several resources that can help teachers utilize online communication in their classroom. These include Prezi - http://prezi.com/ and SpicyNodes - http://www.spicynodes.org/, Edmodo - http://www.edmodo.com/ and a math dictionary http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/dictionary.html, Glogster - http://www.glogster.com/ and Jing http://www.techsmith.com/jing/, You Tube for Education - http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400 and SchoolTube http://www.schooltube.com and TeacherTube http://www.teachertube.com. These are great websites and are very informative resources that range from social networking to informative videos.

As teachers become constantly aware that technology isn’t going to disappear, it is important to understand it and utilize it for our advantage and for our students. Online communication can become an important assist in the educational process and increase learning. For example a teacher could use Edmodo to incorporate lessons, homework, show grades and discussions in a social networking format. Edmodo is an easy way to incorporate online communication besides your average email. Social networking sites like Edmodo can help students stay connected to the classroom without being in class. This has many advantages such as keeping students up to date on tasks and informing parents of what they are doing and their grades. Instead of having paper homework a teacher could assign homework to be done on the site and have students comment on work. It is easier for students to learn this way because students already use social networking sites. You can see that there are no limitations to what you can do with online communication tools. I hope that the sites that I have provided can help you gain an understanding of online communication usage in the classroom.