As I stated in my discussion for this week, technology is the driving force behind almost everything we do today in the 21st century. Our students are on technology overload due to our culture; yet technology seems to be the main staple in really catching their academic attention and actively engaging them in learning. I love finding new technology resources to use in the classroom that help to “dazzle” the students. After test driving several of the Web Tools, I found two that really seemed to catch my attention and fit my needs as a 6th science and social studies teacher.
The first Web Tool I “test drove” was SlideShare. SlideShare is a program that allows you to take already created PowerPoint Presentations and place them “online, tag them, email them, and get html code for embedding them to your own blog, wiki or website”(WebTools4U2Use,2011). One of the components I found to be really great is that you can also add audio, notes, and YouTube videos to your PowerPoint presentations in SlideShare. This would be a beyond wonderful resource for me in both my science and social studies classes. I feel that this web tool can really take PowerPoints to the “next level”. In addition, I can use this program to upload my PowerPoints to my class website so that students and parents can view them/study them at home and we can work on projects in the computer lab at school via this program as well. You can use SlideShare’s basic version for free to upload and share your PowerPoints, however, if you want to access special features you have to “go Pro” and pay a monthly fee. During the test drive I found the free version to be enough. To learn how to use SlideShare there is a tutorial called Slide101 that will help in learning the ins and outs of the program. I am excited to use this tool!
My second WebTool I “test drove” was Museum Box. I thought this resource was really cool especially for my social studies classes. Museum Box is a web tool that allows you to “build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box” (Museum Box, 2011). In addition, you can “you can display anything from a text file to a movie…You can add text, images, video and sound to the side of the cubes.” (Museum Box, 2011). Museum Box has a link for teachers that provide specific tools, instructions, and resources for teachers; you can also register your school. This web tool is a free resource and has lots of files of pictures, videos, sounds, and links available for use. I have already created a Museum Box for my unit on Egypt
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SlideShare is a great tool for making PowerPoint Presentations accessible to a large number of people. I started to look at 280 Slides and found the format frustrating. PowerPoint is software I am more familiar with. Being able to upload personal PowerPoints is great. Thanks for the information. :)
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