I think something useful is the ways Web 2.0 allows people to connect with one another. Being able to share ideas in an open forum is, in my opinion, very helpful when in an educational environment. Take twitter, for example. I had a similar assignment to the one we have in this class in high school. We had to tweet twice a week for my AP Environmental Science class. Although it felt like a random class to have to tweet and post about, it actually turned out to be very helpful. I found out that I was not the only one that was struggling in the class and we ended up talking about concepts that we were confused about over twitter. Our teacher ended up seeing our tweets and the conversation and was able to address questions people had that were too uncomfortable to ask in a class setting. Once our teacher was aware that some students were unhappy or struggling, he was able to adjust and made the rest of the year much more comprehensive and pleasurable.
One of my absolute favorite things from high school was using Kahoot. I loved it because people got really into it since you could see exactly how everyone was doing so people really wanted to do well on it. It was a tool that actually forced me to know the material and know it well because you would get massive bragging rights for winning Kahoot. I think one of the best ways to inspire students to actually study is to make it fun and even add in a bit of a competitive nature.
https://kahoot.it
In my opinion, one of the best advancements in technology from an educational setting would be smart boards. As I have stated, inspiring students to enjoy learning is absolutely crucial because if you enjoy something, you will continue to do it. Especially after being in the technology sandbox, they are advancing more and more to make it incredibly useful to students. We were able to look at all angles of a crab and all of its individual parts. As a 20 year old adult I was completely amazed and entertained, so for students and children they would be so excited to be able to take a astronaut and mess around with it. I think the smart boards are already so advanced and I think they will continue to get better and better with technology improving.
I also loved using Kahoot in high school. I think it is such a fun way for students to really get involved in the learning and the competitive nature definitely gets students more involved. It is also a great tool for teachers to see which questions students are getting wrong to know which topics need to be talked about more.
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