Web Tools for Educators

I have spent time researching and developing a list of web tools that can be used by teachers in the younger grades.  As a student mentor, I am working closely with adult students who are going to be primary teachers. When creating this resource, I kept in mind that teachers who teach and will be teaching in the primary grades will utilize different types of technology than educators who have older students. When selecting my web tools, I looked for a variety of different types of tools since teachers need resources just for themselves for networking and organizing as well as appropriate resources that their younger students can use for their learning.  So, I categorized my tools by teacher use, student use, and both.

Starting with the teacher only resources, I thought it was very important to find resources that could help teachers collaborate and share with other teachers. We have learned that collaboration is a big part of the 21st Century Learning Skills. Blogger and Edublogs are great for this because teachers can create their own blogs and share their experiences. Slideshare and Prezi are great for creating presentations and sharing them. Older students could also take advantage of slideshare.

For the student only resources that I picked, I really tried to focus on technology tools that allow students to create and personalize. Younger students really learn well when they can individualize their learning and make their learning more self centered. I found a few resources that focus on creating stories and books. Some of the tools that I found appropriate and useful for this are Doink, StoryBird, and StoryJumper.

There are a plethora of web tools that both teachers and students can take advantage of.  I included some of the more common ones because I felt that these are vital for educators to be using. Google Docs and You Tube are good examples. Google Docs allows for collaboration and sharing of information while You Tube has videos available addressing anything and everything you could possibly need. Not to mention that students can publish their own videos and share them with the entire world.  Here is the resource that I have developed which includes more than just the web tools that I have highlighted in my blog.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2LZjqhg9oA2ZE9INmNjNk51cGs/edit

What is important to acknowledge is that teachers are going to to need to know how to infuse these tools into their curriculum. Infusing technology is different than in the past. It's not about taking a technology class like you would take gym class. It's about using and integrating technology as part of the curriculum. Teachers need to be proficient and up to date with the latest technology skills.  Technology has been changing so rapidly that teachers are not going to be able to stay stagnant when it comes to incorporating technology. This means that academic curriculum is going to have to be modern, dynamic,flexible, and ever-changing to infuse the fast pace advancements in technology.