This document summarizes Susan Wagner's final presentation on various web tools she learned about in an online course, including wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, and Animoto. The wiki and Kidblog blog will be particularly useful for organizing documents, keeping parents and students informed, and facilitating book clubs and literature circles. Wagner explored different tools and how she plans to apply what she learned to her classroom, such as using National Geographic RSS feeds and an Animoto presentation featuring Renaissance Day photos. Overall, she found the online course informative and is excited to put the various tools to use.
2. Wiki I took a Wiki course earlier in the year and felt that I needed more. As soon as I heard about the on-line course, I signed up. After doing a lot of research and learning, I decided how I wanted to use my Wiki for my classroom. The Wiki will be most helpful to keep everything organized with documents and learning tools for students and parents. I am going to use it for my Back to School Night presentation in the fall. My address is http://mrswagner6thgradela.wikispaces.com
3. Wiki Walk The Wiki Walk was very informative and helped me to have a good understanding of how valuable this style of teaching is for today’s students. All of the ideas were great, but Perk up Your Projects will be the most useful with my students in Language Arts class.
4. RSS I didn’t know anything about RSS before I began this course. Igoogle is the reader that I chose. This is a great way to keep a lot of resources together for all of my subjects. Some of the feeders that I am excited about are the National Geographic, Riddles and CNN News for Kids.
5. I have stayed away from blogging because I have been concerned about the security factor. Kidblog is my solution. It is very easy to set up and use, and it is very secure. Kidblog will be very useful for book clubs, literature circles and Reading Olympics. My Blog is http:kidblog.org/MrsWagnersClass
6. My additional web tool is Animoto. Animoto is very easy and fun to use. My 6th grade class had a Renaissance Day earlier this year, so I chose to upload some pictures of that event. I love the fact that you can add music so easily. My animoto can be found http://animoto.com/play/j4hRbg1aLhUaSgYEeIilsg#
7. Final Thoughts This was my first on-line course. I enjoyed it and learned a myriad of information that will be very helpful to me in the future. I am already answering a lot of questions from the teachers in my school. The Wiki and Kidblog will be the most useful for my class; however, Animoto and my Rss feeders will be utilized a lot as well.
