Journal #2 -Social networking for the K-12 set

"Social networking for the K-12 set" by J. Klein
This article was a real proponent of including Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. It had a lot of neat ideas in it, like having students participate in creating their own pod casts and having teachers have their own informational blogs for both the parents and students. One of the most interesting ideas was the idea of creating a strong community within the teachers and students over the web. This enables people from across the world to be connected with each other and to communicate new ideas regarding teaching. Utilizing technology in this fashion is something that has never happened before in history, the instantaneous communication of ideas across the world.

1. What tools described in the article would I utilize in a classroom?

I think one tool that I will definitely use will be having a teacher run website that both the students and parents can look at and interact with. This sounds incredibly useful to me because it will enable students and parents to always be aware of what is going on in the classroom and what assignments are. It will also be useful to me because it will provide a forum where common questions will already be answered as well as an easy place for me to receive questions and assignments.

2. What drawbacks are there from using all the technology?
One drawback I see is becoming completely dependant on the Web 2.0 utilities. This can be bad because if the technology is not available to a student for whatever reason they will be at a disadvantage. Also, if the school that I work at isn’t fully integrated with technology it can become difficult to run a website and update all the Web 2.0 applications that I want to use.