Blog Post #8

As technology has grown, so has the way we communicate. Some 21st Century communication tools consist of: e-mail, twitter, Facebook, Skype, face time, texting, and ooVoo. OoVoo is a communicating tool that we have not talked about in EDM 310. OoVoo is somewhat like Skype. It allows you to chat with up to twelve different people, send video messages, record and upload videos, send instant messages, send files, and so many more things. It also allows you to chat from your IPhone as well. I personally have an OoVoo and I love it. This tool is very beneficial to use if you need to record a short lecture or explain something through a video message. If your student is struggling with a homework problem and he/she e-mails you a question, you could send him/her a video message, or instant message. That student would always have that in front of him/her. In my opinion, this works way better than the use of telephone, e-mail, or texting. There are many ways to use OoVoo, but this is just one way I would use it. This tool is free and it is constantly improving.

Just as the way we communicate is changing, the way we are learning is too. In EDM 310, we have talked a little about the use of YouTube, Icurio, and Discover Ed as learning tools. After researching I have found that Evernote is a great learning tool for both teachers and students. I would use this tool if I was teaching 4th through 6th grade. Evernote is a place where teachers and students can organize literally anything. For teachers they can organize things by class (if you teach more than one class), school year, subjects and many more things. Students could use this to organize notes that they find on the internet by subjects. This tool also lets you use mobile apps, or computer base apps. You can save screenshots, use word processor and many more things. As a future teacher, I would use this tool to organize my notes by classes if I teach more than one class and I also would organize my notes by subjects.

Voki is another learning tool I came across during my research. I personally like this because this would appeal to the elementary students and I am studying to become an elementary teacher. I would use this tool if I was teaching 2nd through 5th grade. This tool lets you create an avatar that could present the lesson. You can customize the language you wish to use. You can create homework and projects on this site. It is a fun site where the students can do homework on instead of doing it on paper and turning it in. If a student was absence for school, he or she could view your presentation or lesson and do the homework that was assign on Voki. He or she could return to school ready to learn the next lesson. Voki is a really great learning tool to use in the classroom.