Tool #6

On this tool, I had to check out certain educational tools that I can use in and out of the classroom in order to communicate with my students or have them communicate with me.

For example, we will be able to use Skype in the Classroom when we get out Netbooks. I can see that as an opportunity to talk to pen pals in a letter assignment. For example, for our letter assignment, we could pick a class in another school in another state. Then we can skype with them. We can also use Skype in the Classroom to see other students' projects in other schools.

Then I tried Wallwisher. Wallwisher is cool! I can have students post pictures that demonstrate a particular vocabulary concept. Students can double-click anywhere and put pictures in from Flickr.

Here's my Wallwisher account:

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/grammarqueen

I also joined Today's Meet. I created a room, Servat, for a year. So, students can comment on what they've learned from a certain assignment, or you could use it as an assignment. For example, if I assigned a commentary for the students to read for homework, they could post the claim of the commentary, facts from the commentary, the author's tone, etc.

It seems like this would only work for kids to do as homework on their own computers at home, at least until we have more resources in the classroom.

I guess kids could use their smartphones in the classroom, but you would have to arrange groups around the kids that actually had smartphones.

Here's my Today's Meet room:

http://www.todaysmeet.com/Servat