bp11_20091014_Web 2.0 Tool_Edu20.org

Edu20.org

One of the things that I noticed last year about being a young teacher in a technological world was how many requests that I would get to be Facebook friends with me students. Because I use the same technology that my students use, Facebook, instant messaging, my students would find me online. I also found that my students, especially my female students, would come to me for advice and just to talk. Having once been a middle school girl myself, I know how important it is for them to have a trusted adult that they can talk to. Thus, I decided to look for an educational social networking site. There were many that I came across during my search, but none of them contained the aspects that I was looking for. However I did find a tool even better, Edu20.org, which was provided to us in our assignment this week. Edu20.org has everything that I was looking for and more.

Edu20.org allows users to create an online school. I could really see this tool used in an online college class, but I think that it has elements that can work great in public schools as well. There are so many tools incorporated into this site from messaging, chat, wikis, blogs, widgets, groups and multimedia to creating assignments, rubrics, and calendars, just to name a few. I could see using this in the classroom to create groups for each of my classes or bands. I could post new music or videos that I find that I want students to explore. Having a discussion board, would allow students to talk to each other and with me about music.

Each student could also create a blog, which his or her classmates and myself could comment on. Edu20.org also allows students to create a digital portfolio of their work. The best part of Edu20.org is the element of control over who sees your profile. This makes Edu20.org a safer place for students to be on, than say Facebook or MySpace.

As with all other social networking sites, parent permission would be imperative. I would encourage parents to also join the network and join the parent group, so that they were aware of what was going on in the classroom. Even if I only use a couple of the features of the site, it would definitely be worth it, having a safe and constructive place that my students could communicate with each other and me.

References:

Edu20.org. (2009). The free, easy way to teach and learn online. Retrieved on October 14, 2009, from http://www.edu20.org/