My Favorite Web2.0 tools

Web2.0 means that technology is changing so that you can put everything on the web. When there is internet access in almost every location and more people have access to the internet on their phones people are using the internet to store their documents. Why not just upload a presentation on the internet so that you don't have to tote around your laptop or remember to store it on a USB stick. Everything is being done on the internet.

4Shared.com: Is a site where you can not only upload photos, but share them with others. You can control who can have access to your photos and who can download them. I know that this may be better than putting them on facebook because sometimes if you download photos from facebook they come out tiny. I think you get quality photos from off the web this way. I plan on personally using this to share photos from the graduation trip I took with my best friend and roommate. However this site can be used in the classroom as well. You can have students upload their photos from a class field trip into a folder, so that everyone has access to them and they are all in one spot. I know often people will throw up photos from a trip on their on facebook page, but then you have to go search for them and find them. You can also have students comment on photos in the album as well. You can have a folder of photos from that class on the web and be able to access it anywhere. That way you can show anyone what students are doing in your class and have photos for presentations right there. You can also upload any images you plan to use in your lesson plans onto the site and be able to access it wherever you end up teaching. This way it allows you more space for photos and no worry of losing them. If you are constantly taking photos of your class then you can store them at 4Shared.com each in its own folder and not take up space on your personal hard drive. 

Screentoaster.com: This site will record your audio of your presentation over your powerpoint presentation. Basically you can go through all of your slides and explain what they mean as you go. You could also show videos and discuss them in your presentation. It is like giving a presentation, but not actually seeing the presenter. It is super cool and super easy. After you are done recording you can download it to your computer, upload it to the site, or even put it on youtube. I think this would be a great tool for teacher's to use so that they can provide students who were absent with the material. It allows them to see and hear your explanation instead of having to rely on student notes or the textbook. Also if students are not strong note takers or are audio-visual learners than this could be a resource for them when doing their homework. If they missed something in class they could refer to the online recording of the lecture. I think students could also use it to record their presentation then listen to it to see if it can be improved on. It also allows students a way to time their presentation and practice it before giving it. I think this also could be a way to publish students final presentation and let them have a copy. It can be saved and be a work sample to share with other teachers. I think if you are ever teaching an online course in your life time it is a great way to make a lecture and then share with the class.

I quickly went through my senior thesis presentation on my computer adding description to the slides. It may be confusing and not accurate because I did it off the cuff and didn't review my notes. However it is still a good example, but some of the complicated math ideas may be incorrect and hard to understand since I didn't go in detail.