Learning Side by Side

On this eve before Christmas, Steve Hargadon asked for the Classroom 2.0 community to share our favorite Web 2.0 apps for the year. This was in response to him finding Larry Ferlazzo’s anf Silvia Tolisano’s lists of their “Best Web 2.0 Applications for Education.”

I obliged with a reply to his discussion, creating the following list “off the cuff” and without much thought other than the fact that I use the apps a lot. As I post this, I start thinking of some of my other favorites (Picasaweb, Flickr, Blogger, PBwiki, TeacherTube, del.icio.us, etc.) that I forgot to mention, but I will let my original list stand so as to keep it consistent with my original reply.

1. Twitter – This microblogging app has allowed me to quadruple my resources by connecting me to the whereaboouts of other educators. This is where I first heard about “pot roast nachos”!

2. Ustream.tv – With many presenters adding live streaming of their presentations at various conferences, I have been able to virtually be at regional conferences throughout the world.

3. Classroom 2.o – This is where most of my networking beyond my regional area started for me. I joined this Ning network early this year and found that the sharing created richer opportunities to find out what was happening in our Read/Write Web.

4. VoiceThread – I am enamored by the various ways to contribute to a collaborative project here. I am glad that the Doodler allows participants to draw on images.

5. Skype – It’s been around for a while, but it still serves as one of the easiest ways to connect to others.

6. Google Earth – When the latest version was released, I was able to embed video into tours, look at the sky, and play flight simulator. Still provides goosebumps to students when they see familiar places from overhead.

7. BubbleShare – An easy photosharing site that some teachers in my district used this year with students, including a showcase at conferences.

8. Google Docs & Spreadsheets – Still free. Still powerful. When the app was upgraded this year, my use of it in educational settings increased dramatically. But I am still waiting for the “tags” feature to return.

9. Google Reader – It took over as my favorite RSS aggregator early this year. I was able to subscribe to certain YouTube vidoes and watch them from within the app, not having to visit YouTube itself. And the fact that there are several Google applications listed in my top 10 occur because I only have to sign in once with the same login/password.

10. iGoogle – With this as my start page, I could access almost everything else listed above and more. I feel bad for my Pageflakes page, but I once again don’t have to manage multiple passwords.

These are just my personal preferences based on use, but I found so many great tools to use this year. My predictions for 2008 include greater significance for Second Life, an app development boom for the XO laptop, and GPS integrated into just about every machine.

And I leave you with a prompt to let me know your favorite Web 2.0 tools of 2007. Leave a comment here, in Twitter (@johnrivera), or in Classroom 2.o (jriver18).