#5 The Technology of The Future

          The Web is an important teacher planning tool. There are 2 different generations of the web. Web 1.0 delivers static content to all of its users. Web 2.0 is more sophisticated and allows people to interact and communicate with each other on social media. Examples of Web 2.0 can be blogs, YouTube, etc. Many people use these tools, but teachers can use Web 2.0 in many effective ways in the classroom.
          Teachers can use YouTube to locate videos for educational purposes, or class blogs to keep everyone active in passive ways. There are 4 main Web 2.0 tools that teachers can use to enhance education for students. They are blogs, Wikis, Twitter, and Diigo. Blogs are student publishing platforms, allowing students to showcase their work.
          There are student safe blog sites in which the teacher can regulate who can see the blogs and who can comment, protecting the students' safety. Wikis engage students in collaborative writing or help them to develop a collaborative knowledge basis. With a Twitter account, students can follow authors, scientists, and other educational related pages or people.
          They can also reach out to the source and directly contact them, if they have any questions or want to know more information regarding that person and/or organization.  Diigo is a social bookmarking tool that can be used to share resources found online with other students or teachers in the classrooms. They can comment and ask questions right on the article.
          I feel that all of these tools are very useful for teaching, especially something like Diigo. Diigo not only requires collaboration within students and teachers, but it is a great way for students to team up and work together, helping each other succeed. Diigo creates a personal learning network, which I think is super important to establish once students are in appropriate grade levels to be using personal learning networks to help them enhance tier learning.
          However, Web 2.0 does bring up safety concerns. To keep students safe, teachers can use classroom accounts for all interactions that are teacher controlled/monitored. Having teachers monitor content and using password protected sites will also protect student safety. Interactive 2.0 tools can be regularly integrated in class as long as the teachers take part in extensive research to find websites with safety regulations.
          There are many interesting Web 2.0 tools out there for my disposal. As a future teacher, there are so many that can help me in the future to further elevate my teaching abilities. One Web 2.0 tool that I find very interesting that I will use when teaching is Teacher Planet. Teacher Planet makes lesson plan templates, as well as lesson plan worksheets that can be downloaded, and once filled in with your lesson, can be easily emailed/distributed to not only your teachers, but parents as well so they can stay on top of what their children are currently learning in class.
           I think this is a great resource, because not only does it keep teachers organized and allow them to format their presentations and worksheets and notes in ways that they want, but it also allows for parents and students to easily receive this information. Parents love to be involved, so this gives them that feeling of involvement, and this allows students to have an extra copy of notes and lessons so they can study at home with their parents.
          This tool also allows for teachers to electronically keep track of their grade books, creates rubrics for projects/essays teachers want to assign, and also helps create certificate to give to students based off of high level performance. Overall, this tool is an amazing Web 2.0 tool that I intend to seriously look into when I become a teacher. (http://www.teacherplanet.com)
          There are many technological advancements that have promise in the educational world. Some will go farther than others, and some will be proven more useful than others but with the advancement of technology comes new technological advancements in the field of education. Personally, I believe that certain technological advancements are more promising for certain grade levels than others.
          With that being said, I believe that Gamification has the most promise in the future of the educational world. Gamification is taking educational games, and adding new advanced elements to them. These elements increase motivation and interactivity, creativity, and allows students to more deeply understand curriculum. In a world where the attention span of children is drastically decreasing, and not only that but the fact that young toddlers are currently being introduced to technology, these advanced educational games is the perfect fit.
          Instead of students texting, tweeting, etc. all day long, swap out there phone for a device that is locked and only contains access to these educational games. Plan out your day as a teacher so that there are small periods of time where the students are taking notes learning, then turning to these tablets containing only Gamification  games.
          These games can be used to assess students instead of paper exams, be a good source of extra credit, great study tools, or even great ways to increase student participation in kids that are particularly shy, don't like to speak, but have no problem typing on this tablet to communicate.
          The example in the textbook that really warmed my heart was the World Peace Game, where 4th graders had to play a multilevel board game with their classmates in which students represent different countries and have to achieve world peace despite conflicting views, without military intervention.
          It's innovations like these that will bring teaching to a new level, making school exciting and fun for students to learn, and allowing students to want to engage in the curriculum they once thought was so boring that they could barely stay awake. There's not a doubt in my mind that Gamification is the next big thing in the teaching industry, and this will go as far as teachers allow it too. This product can and will revolutionize the way teachers teach.