COOL TOOLS FOR MY CLASSROOM!

In today’s world we have access to an abundant amount of web resources to use both personally and for school. I think that you could go on for a while naming all of these resources. From presentation tools to pictures tools and drawing tools and audio, graphing, quizzing, etc. The possibilities are end less. For me after exploring through many sites/ tools, I have found three that I think would be very useful and interesting to use. As a pre-service teacher I am always looking for new and creative resources that I could use one day in my own classroom. The top three I have chosen are “Google Docs, Prezi, and Picasa.”

I think there is definitely a possibility of being able to use all three web 2.0 sites in a classroom. First is the Google Docs. Google docs is obviously a program from Google. This program allows students to collaborate on projects together without having to be physically right beside each other. The program requires you to have a Google account and that’s about it. Students can work on documents, PowerPoint, etc on separate computers in separate locations. This is pretty amazing when you think about it. I would use this in my classroom for what I just described above, collaboration among students.

Prezi is another really neat method of presentation to use. Sometimes PowerPoint and even smart notebook can get tedious, so Prezi a innovative alternate. Like Smart Notebook Prezi is more interactive. It has more movement and flow compared to the static square ppt. So I would use this program just as it is meant to be used for. For presentations/ lessons. Or the students could use it if comfortable with it could use it for their presentations.  Ensuring a place for this site in my classroom.

The final of my top three is Picasa brought to us by Google. Picasa is a photo program that stores your photos and has the ability to edit. I think this would work great in my classroom. First of all I want to teacher little kids. And you have to teach them what similarities and differences are. I think edited photos are a great visual way to show that. Not only is it good for students things like that but also a great place to store photos for children’s portfolio’s. Or if your a teacher on a year book committee. the program may work for that.  The Picasa program like the other two could have a place in my classroom.

I chose each of these web sites because I have personally used all of them and I think that they do a stand up job for being free resources. They are easy to use, widely accessible on most devices. And mostly they are new and inventive and interactive. These three were chosen because they work, especially well in a classroom setting.

I am sure there are more plenty useful sites available on “Cool Tools for School.” But on a personal preference, Google Docs, Prezi, and Picasa are right at the top.