2.+What+impact+do+these+tools+have+on+a+student’s+educational+experience?

Web 2.0 enhances a student's educational experience by allowing them limitless options in interacting with course material and each other. Knowledge is no longer transmitted one way from the teacher to the student, instead there are open pathways where information flows both ways as well as beyond.

=media type="youtube" key="hb8mAuaqiZY" height="227" width="287" align="right"= = = = = = Extending the Classroom Outside the School = Earl Haig S.S. students who may have not quite understood important material in class or missed the class entirely can now review the information through YouTube. Students worldwide searching for help on these particular topics also benefit from watching these videos. This makes extra help essentially unlimited as students can now get help on their own from home without having to worry about their own time commitments as well as that of their teacher.

See the full article in the [|June 2010 Professionally Speaking]

media type="youtube" key="1CP6vcnB9QI" height="227" width="288" align="left" = Differentiated Assessments = YouTube can also provide an outlet to which students can demonstrate their understanding to their teachers in formats that did not exist in the past. In this example (left) student from the Greater Toronto Area use YouTube to demonstrate their understanding of parabolas. The benefit of this reaches far beyond the classroom that these students are in as their created content is shared worldwide, benefiting teachers and students. The comments on this video indicate that teachers show this video in their classroom as an introduction or to grab their students' attention.


 * ~ Benefits and Drawbacks of YouTube ||
 * = Pros ||= Cons ||
 * < * Students worldwide benefit from the content posted by the teacher
 * Students who miss class due to illness, vacation, sports, etc can now catch up online at their convenience
 * Provides another means to which students can demonstrate their understanding ||< * The ability to ask questions or for clarification in real time is not available, however through the internet it would be possible to ask questions electronically
 * Teacher is not physically present to review the students understanding and ask guiding questions.
 * Students must be careful and use YouTube appropriately ||

= Forming a Stronger School Community = Facebook provides the means to communicate outside of school. Teachers can use it to create a sense of community for a particular class or extra curricular group. The benefit of this is students are very in tune to this technology and very apt to checking it regularly. If used appropriately Facebook can enhance a student's experience within the school. An example of its use is for a sports team at school. The coach can communicate thoughts to positively reinforce the members thus encouraging them to continue working hard for the team. The members tend to form a tighter bond with each other through Facebook and it is very convenient to share game pictures, information regarding tournaments and schedules.

There are however many concerns regarding teachers using Facebook to interact with students, some of them include: As it stands now many boards of education do not condone student use of Facebook on school computers, going so far as to block the website from being accessed at school. Web 2.0 has introduced significant technologies to students and teachers and it would seem that as of yet there is no certainty as to how to approach the use and incorporation of these tools into education. Perhaps it is time to accept these tools and focus our efforts on appropriate conduct in an online environment rather than simply attempting to block the website from being accessed.
 * Allowing students to access personal profiles of teachers
 * Having access to a students personal profile
 * Opening the door for inappropriate student teacher relationships
 * Removing boundaries between teacher and student