Cloud Computing 9-22-09

Web 2.0

Online web-based applications. "Cloud computing"


Examples:

• Picasa--for photos, email photos, edit and crop photos
  
• Catchvideo--can move online videos around, such as to teachertube or even locally
• Delicious tagging (delicious.com)--online bookmarks
• Doodle.com--great for scheduling meetings with multiple people
• google forms--great for surveys, as well as collecting data and analyzing
• scribblar--online whiteboards, can be shared, opening a new page makes "a new whiteboard"
• blogger.com--create a free online blog site
• Yodio--use cell phone to record sound and save in the cloud
• 4shared.com--5G free storage any files, can share, could be great for musicians
• tinyurl.com--makes a short URL and connects the long URL to the short one
• Ustream--live broadcasting, could be used for podcasting
• wordle.net--makes fun collections of words, "a must see"

Great ways to use these in the classroom

• tokbox-record a lecture or assignment so students can listen to it again at home.
• wordle.net- Make a collection of student names in a fun way to develop a feeling of a family as a class.
• Screentoaster- Show students how to find something on the internet
• Blogger.com--great for parent communication*
• 4shared.com--share lesson plans with other teachers*

*My Favorites



Reflection
Using Web 2.0 tools means that work is not attached to a particular machine. There are two big applications I see with that. First, teachers do not have to worry about losing all of their work if a computer crashes or needs to be moved to a computer lab. With Web 2.0, lesson plans stored on a computer for 10 years can still be used after the 10 year old computer breaks. The files are not lost. 4shared.com can store up to 5G of files for free. Lesson plans can easily be stored for protection from losing a computer, plus they can easily be shared with collaborating teachers. Second, Web 2.0 tools can easily be used for effective parent communication. Students will not have to worry about remembering to bring letters home to their parents, because they can just go home and look something up on the internet. Homework assignments, classroom discussion summaries, lesson outlines, and many other classroom papers can be put onto the internet for children and their parents to access at home. Parents can even be updated about classroom happenings through a blog.