Twitter

Twitter is a popular web site designed to allow people to send updates about themselves to 'followers'. These status updates can be about anything however it is important to remember that many people are able to access your 'tweets' so some things may be inappropriate to include in your status updates. Twitter has the ability to be a great discussion tool, although for teachers to regulate student use of twitter would be almost impossible so students would need to understand the rules and consequences when using twitter. I would only use twitter in my classroom as a communication tool between teacher and parents, perhaps instead of newsletters.

Scratch

Scratch is an interesting innovation which has the potential to be used in the classroom however the difficulty in creating your own animation limits how scratch is used by teachers. It is a program which allows users to create their own animations and upload to the scratch website. By setting up your own account you can view other peoples projects. For teachers this is where you can find educational activities for students. I feel that allowing students to create their own projects may be a little to difficult and time consuming for them to benefit from the programming. I would use scratch in my classroom with mathematically gifted students or those who have advanced computer skills who need challenging. I would use ready made scratch projects in my classroom but make sure students can only access appropriate content while they are on the website.

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Google Docs

Google Docs is an interesting program which allows people to save their own documents on the web. A link to these documents can be sent to anyone to access at any time. This means that documents can be edited and viewed by multiple people at the same time. This is similar to how wiki's work. I think that google docs has great potential for use in the classroom if used appropriately. Limits may need to be set as to who can access and edit students work depending on the a specific documents intended use. For example if you want a whole class to contribute to one document, then all students would be allowed, however if a student is posting their own work, you would want to control who can edit the document. This technology is great for sharing documents and has features that could be very useful to teachers, such as the shared timetable. I would use this in my classroom although rules would need to be in place about the appropriate use of google docs.

Bitstrips

Bitstrips is a website that is similar to facebook in the way you create an account and can add your friends. This site allows us to easily make our own comics and your own characters. It also has features that would allow teachers to use it with their students. By limiting access to various 'child friendly' parts of the site, students are able to make comics and share with their peers. The comic builder library contains objects, characters and backgrounds, this takes the emphasis off of the drawing/artistic skills and instead focuses on the creativeness and meaning of the comic. This means that students who are not comfortable with their drawing skills are still able to contribute. I think it would be a great site to use with children who are experienced with computers as some of the features can be a little difficult to master. If this innovation were to be used in schools, teachers would first need to become familiar with each aspect of the site and how the site works. Security settings would need to be set so that students cannot access inappropriate material and those outside the classroom cannot access the students accounts. Below is my own comic strip I made.