Twitter in the Classroom

I think this is a great idea. I think it would be fun for the students and a great way to keep in contact with the teacher. It is a way that students can express themselves in a way that they don't have to speak up in class if they are shy and a way that students can be creative with their tweets. The students have a 140 character limit when tweeting, which means the students must think about what they are going to say and how they are going to say it. This way most post should be good, thought out reflections, answers, etc. I would definitely consider using this form of social networking in my classroom. I think I would need to become a little more familiar with it though first. It seems sort of similar to Facebook and MySpace which I am familiar with, so it shouldn't take too long to get it under my belt. I would think, however, that this sort of social networking site would be used in a higher grade level than what I hope to be teaching in. I want to teach some where between KG and 2nd grade and I'm not sure if I would like to use twitter with kids at that age. But you never know a few years from now all kids at that age will be up to date with all of the newest technology and social networking sites. I always wondered exactly what twitter was and now I know. I was always curious about it and knew of friends that had it, but I never wanted to join, because I have so many other social networking sites I belong to/joinded.

Using Google Docs

I was so happy to learn how to use Google Docs. I thought it was such a great way to get information and put information together. It basically takes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and makes those programs available to anyone for no expense. There is also a place where you can make forms, this is a great application to use in your classroom. Say you want to give a test, you can do it online or if you want to go on a field trip you can send out a bulk form to all of the parents. I think that Google Docs is so practical for the classroom and for personal use to. I will surely use Google Docs in my class.
I actually have gotten some different Google Doc spread sheets from people who use it for contact information and for a sign-up for activity participation. I think it is easy to use and it is just so practical. With Google Docs you also don't have to worry about having a USB drive to carry around and have the chance of losing, you just have to have a Google account and do all of your work online.

Wikispaces

I thought that using the wikis was quite fun. It was fun to learn about the different things you can put on your page and trying out the different tools too. In the wikispaces you can put music, videos, calendars, links, pictures, and many other features. I think it would be great to use in your classroom as a teacher, for your students, for yourself, or even with other faculty. It is a great way to communicate, be creative, be expressive, and teach in your classroom. As a teacher you can put assignments on the wikispaces, have your students make a portfolio of some kind, have your class schedule and class syllabus on the wiki, have different projects on your wiki for your students to complete, have a study guide for your students, or incorporate more than one class on the wiki. Since I have used a wiki before in a class in high school I felt more comfortable with the material presented. I knew about the widgets, links, files you can attach, and other features involved. However, it was good to have a refresher with the wikispaces, because I had forgotten how to use some of the features. I will surely use the wikispaces in my classroom or in the future as a teacher. I just think that wikis are a great technological advance and are a bunch of fun to use.