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BP11_OMM_SweetSearch

BP10_Comment to Jason

Follow this link to my comment on Jason's blog.

Jason Peglow's blog on Prezi

What a great idea Prezi is! It is cutting edge, professional, and out of the norm for us "common folk". It is a great way to bring attention to information in videos and as you pointed out, our common place Powepoints and Keynote presentations. Yet again, another great Web 2.0 tool to incorporate with my Action Research.

BP9_Comment to Leland

Follow this link to my comment on Leland's blog.

Leland Kreigh's blog post on Wallwisher

Instead of creating real sticky notes, doing virtual ones on Wallwisher are more "green". This is an excellent idea for virtual learning to encompass sharing amongst the learners. This can be another Web 2.0 tool I can place on my website for Action Research.

BP8_Sweet Search

A snapshot of Sweet Search

My Web 2.0 for this week is Sweet Search. It is a site where your students can safely search online through filters.  Instead of watching over your students during research on Google, Yahoo, or other search engines, Sweet Search watches them for you.  Many of the sites have been pre-approved from other educators, media center specialists, and others in the education realm.  I like this idea.  Although my school restricts certain websites, and add more when necessary, there are always ways around them, especially if students know anything about proxies.

There are also different versions of Sweet Search, such as SweetSearch2Day, a site where students can learn something new every day.  SweetSites has grade level appropriate and subject related searches. SweetSearch4Me is SweetSearch's engine for emerging, or new users to the internet, as you can bookmark sites and link to your Facebook and other networking sites.  SweetSearch Biographies profiles over 1000 important people, such as entertainers, explorers, and philanthropists.  Most likely, I would use the latter site in general because in Social Studies, we are constantly learning about important people in history.  I rather students use this site instead of "looking on Google" as they say or on Wikipedia, where the information may not be legitimate.  I would use SweetSearch for my Action Research project by linking it to my site, so then my students will know and understand that this is the site that I would like for them to start their research at. 

This site is not a new idea, as there are other search engines that block or limit content, but SweetSearch is able to find the most relevant results from a list of credible resources.  It also makes it easier for students to find primary sources, such as pictures, letters, and other historical items.

BP7_OMM_Quizlet

BP6_Comment to Dena

Follow this link to my comment on Dena's blog.

Dena's blog

From Dena Moncrief's blog, I liked her Web 2.0 Tool of choice, Schoology.  She had a great explanation of the site's uses and features.  It is basically a way for teachers, student, parents, and administrators to connect and interact with one another in a user-friendly environment.  I would like to use this tool on my website for my Action Research Project.

BP5_Comment to Everett

Follow this link to my comments on Everett's blog.

Everett's blog

Everett Jones has posted on his blog site about his subscriptions of Google Reader.  I like his suggestions posted to the site, but one that I did not personally do in my Google Reader was for the White House.  As a U.S. History teacher, I think that this site will be beneficial to me as well.  I can keep my students informed about President Obama, his cabinet, and the entire government. 

BP4_Quizlet

My Quizlet page for my Social Studies class.

The Web 2.0 tool that have used and will start to use again is Quizlet.  I used it with my 7th grade Geography class 2 years ago as a study tool for vocabulary words learned in class.  They loved it!  Before the unit, I would upload all of the vocabulary.  As students finished assignments, I would allow them to log onto Quizlet to review.  There are multiple things they can do on the site.    They can learn the set of terms posted by the teacher,  test themselves, and play games.  There is also a feature where they can interact and chat with one another.  Any user of Quizlet can use other sets posted by users, so you do not always need to create new ones.  I would like to use this with my high schoolers and place it on my website for my Action Research project. 

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