Web 2.0

For my Web 2.0 assignment, I have chosen Figurative Language as my topic.  This is a topic that I occasionally am able to teach as a speech-language pathologist.  I have worked with classroom teachers using the inclusion model to co-teach units like this in the past.  This topic has always been one of my favorite higher-level speech therapy lessons!  My concept map was created using https://bubble.us/.

Concept Map

For this assignment, I also had to complete a Figurative Language Glog using glogster.com, an Animoto Video demonstrating figurative language, and then a web 2.0 free choice assignment.  For my free choice assignment, I chose Big Huge Labs.  By using this website, I created three different images.

Motivational Poster

Movie Poster

Roadside Billboard

I had fun creating these images.  I can definitely see that students would enjoy making projects like these, especially if the teacher printed some out and placed them around the room.  I did think it was great that as a teacher, you could pre-register your students and they would have full access to the site for free.  

My opinion on the use of these various Web 2.0 tools changed some throughout this assignment.  In the beginning, I decided that I hated glogster!  Well, that opinion hasn't changed very much! :)  I can definitely use this tool now, but I still think the functionality is difficult for an average learner to grasp.  I also don't know how it would be very beneficial in a classroom setting.  However, that may be because I have always taught younger grades.  It may be more suited for older students.  

I wasn't really sure about how to use the Animoto video in a classroom environment.  I think that for this to be most useful, the teacher would need to purchase a membership so that the videos could be longer than thirty seconds.  It would be really great to use to show parents an end-of-year video or to share pictures from a class field trip.

I think that the students would benefit most from using Big Huge Labs.  I think it would motivate the children to be able to actually play with the puzzles that they created, view the posters on the classroom wall, etc.  It was easy to use and quick to create.

I hope you enjoy!