Evaluation of Web 2.0 Sites

     In the social category, I chose to explore the Twitter web 2.0 site.  Twitter is a social site that our district has been encouraging staff to incorporate into their courses.  The district heavily uses it to communicate with parents and the community.  Many varsity coaches also use it to quickly communicate information to their teams.  In my high school, I was able to identify one dozen teachers currently using Twitter in their classrooms.  Most use it as an enrichment tool.  They’ll tweet additional questions from work covered in class that particular day.  Some also use it to list additional links to gain a better understanding of a specific topic.  A few of the teachers I spoke with felt it was an easy and quick way to communicate to their students.  The one problem they indicated was motivating their students to follow their Twitter handle.  I also spoke with several of my students about their use of Twitter.  Many of them indicated that they don’t really use it much anymore.  As the father of a 15 year old, teenagers seem to quickly move on to the “latest and greatest” when it comes to social media. 

     In the creative category, I previewed the Prezi web 2.0 site.  I have always been a big fan of Microsoft Powerpoint but have heard that Prezi is much more interactive.  I signed up for an account and began exploring various pages and samples.  I was not disappointed and can see why so many of my colleagues are using this site.  As I experimented with the design features, it was easy to use and very interactive.  Adding graphics, sound and video to a Prezi was easy to do as well.  I think ease of use is a key consideration when selecting a web 2.0 tool to incorporate with your students.  Although school age kids are technology addicts, some are not as savvy when asked to actually design and create projects using technology.  Overall, I like everything about Prezi and can see myself utilizing this web site in my classroom for various activities.

    Finally, in the curation category, I chose to preview the Pinterest web 2.0 site.  I learned a little bit about Pinterest from one of my students in the fall.  He was using it to search for project ideas.  I like the idea of a web site with such visual learning experiences that covers such a broad range of topics.  I was also a fan on pinning things that are interesting to me.  Looking at Pinterest strictly from an education standpoint, I think it would add value to student understanding.  A big plus is the ability to “keep boards secret”.  A teacher would be able to create a board with visual content to support a topic covered in class.  The teacher could then share it with his or her students.  The only necessity would be making sure students could only access certain pins.  I searched using the term “nude art” and found quite an interesting array of pins.  I would like to try the same search under the blanket of our district’s firewall to be sure it would catch these pins and flag them.

     Overall, I liked the web 2.0 sites I examined.  I think one important item to consider when rolling out one of these sites with your students is trying it with a test group.  A small group of students completing a sample assignment could help the classroom teacher find the kinks in the assignment.  This would allow the teacher to make adjustments prior to a “full rollout” of the activity and save some frustration in the process.