Technology+for+Sharing,+Collaborating,+and+Communicating

There are many Web 2.0 technologies that help us share, collaborate, and communicate information such as Wiki's, Podcasts, and Powerpoints. The Wiki is a great a tool in bringing people's ideas together. A Wiki is a webpage in which those with access can freely edit and collaborate. Wikis allow for many people to share information. This would be very helpful in a classroom setting. A teacher can set up a Wiki and allow for all students of the class to have access. This way the teacher could hold group discussions online outside of class as well as post information including class schedules, daily assignments, review problems, class examples and much more. The Wiki is a very beneficial technology. Podcasting can prove to be a very valuable tool for collaborating and communicating. Through podcasting, one can record their voice and post it on a website, allowing multiple users to access and listen to the information. A great example of this would be a professor recording their lecture, then posting it on a class’s website. The lecture would be available to all students. Students who missed the lecture would be especially appreciative of this technology. A shortcoming of this tool, however, is the lack of visual aid. Although the audio can be very helpful, no video is present, forcing the user to rely solely on an auditory learning style. Powerpoints are another great tool in sharing and communicating information. Using Powerpoints, teachers, for example, can create a presentation about a lesson and then present to their class. They can present this information either by using a projector in a classroom to present a cutting-edge presentation, or they can post the file online, allowing it to be accessed my multiple users. This is convenient for students that wish to review the lesson or for those who missed the class.