Web+2.0+Tools+Critique

**__Web 2.0 Tools __** || **__User Friendly? __** || **__Application to Social Studies Classroom? __** || **__Cost __** || Browser Set-Up: Mozilla Firefox || Yes || Good for browsing, it runs well on a variety of software platforms and is straight forward with it’s download, set up, and navigation. || Free || Aggregators: Google Reader || Yes || With use of RSS feeds Google Reader can be used to keep up to date on current events from a variety of different perspectives, not just an American regional view point and it is very quick to scan. || Free to use with no-cost account || Social Bookmarking: del.icio.us || Yes || For teaching it could be helpful for moving from home to school while working on the same project. It could help if you had a class account or group account for working on a project to tag where you found important or possibly relevant information. || Free to use with no-cost account || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Search Tools: squidoo.com || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yes || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">It was interesting using this site because it has a revolving list of topics that you may be interested in and then subsequent links from there. It is kind of like the wonderwheel feature on Google. Could be used to research and explore related material to the topic that may not come up using other search engines. || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Free || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Webstart: <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Google Personal Page || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">For the most part || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">It is fine but, I found it to be a little bit of a distraction as a teaching tool. Depending on the gadget used they can take a long time to load and it is a single page. Probably will not use this in my class. || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Free to use with no-cost account || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Weblogs: Blogger || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yes || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I good way to communicate with a class it is hard for me to envision implementing because of concerns of monitoring content and user appropriate behavior. || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Free to use with no-cost account || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Wikis: Wiki Spaces || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">For the most part || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is a good tool that gives a healthy amount of bang for buck. The wiki looks good and is highly customizable which I like. The formatting is slightly complicated to arrange things precisely but it can be done with practice. The embeddable widgets and easy to embed links make the wiki a contender for use in my classroom. || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Free to use with no-cost account, but can be "upgraded" to avoid adds and increase features || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Web-Based Word Processing: Google Docs || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yes || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I have used Google Docs in previous classes and find them easy to use and particularly versatile. With an easy collaboration model and ability to save in a variety of formats including MS Word Google Docs will see lots of use. || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Free to use with no-cost account || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Web-Based Spreadsheets: Google Docs || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Somewhat || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Google’s version of Excel is good for collaboration but other than one assignment that I have used the spreadsheet applications are not very widely used in social studies. If I do need to share a spread sheet this would be the program to use even though it is not quite as powerful as Excel. || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Free to use with no-cost account || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Creative Writing: <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Glypho || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yes || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">This seems interesting and could be entertaining, but I don’t know about the application to History or Social Studies other than you need to understand who the author of a text is. || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Free to use with no-cost account || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Assessment Tools: Hot Potatoes || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yes, most of the time || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is a great tool for creating assessments. They are not the flashiest of assessments but do the job well. The drag and drop matching quiz is my favorite and can be use to insert media objects in addition to text. I anticipate creating time lines and study tools often using this. The only downside is that when inserting images to a quiz, when the quiz is posted the images need to be in a zipped folder with the quiz making it a little cumbersome to post image quizzes to a wiki. || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Free, but need to sign up- and download || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Podcasting: iTunes, Garage band || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yes || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Podcasting is something I could definitely use in my class. Whether it is recording my own lectures and posting them to a class website or, linking them to iTunes. Podcasting is a good way to help students who were not there or were not in the flow to have a second chance at the material. || <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Most are free, some cost a few bucks. ||