The Why’s and Wherefores

“The Why’s and Wherefores” by Brian Crosby

With this webcast, Mr. Crosby has shown his audience that free internet based tools such as Flickr, Skyp, video conferencing, wiki pages, blogging can be incorporated into elementary classroom work to change the look of 21st century learning. Through example, Mr. Crosby shared ideas of projects he had used with his classes.I especially appreciated the classroom examples shown with each of the internet tools explained. Incorporating these motivational tools into writing, social studies, science and especially community service lessons are great lessons for both teacher and students.

The Aha moment for me in the video podcast was the realization that with Flickr the class and I can share digital photos taken for class projects without me distributing these into individual folders for student access. This will be a great time saving resource for me to use with many lessons.

Also using blogs for writing projects and students comments is also another great way to teach internet ethics and safety. Student book reviews blogged onto a classroom page can be used as a learning and promotional device in the media center. Being that many of these tools are free make them even more amenable.