Instructional Technology Tools in the Classroom

Tools such as Wiki and Google Sites allow collaborative learning to take place inside the classroom. With these tools, every student within the class has the opportunity to view, edit, delete or add an kind of information they deem appropriate. These tools allow multiple students to work with one document, but it gives them all the chance to participate in the learning process. An example a teacher could do to incorporate one of these tools into the classroom maybe to create a classroom website. Once the instructor has created the website, he/she could assign different groups of students to work on separate parts/pages of the website. Doing this allows all students to partake in the construction of the website, but it also allows them to read and edit their peers' materials.

RSS and Diigo give the class and/or individual students an opportunity to be exposed to multiple sources at once instead of finding all of the sources individually. These types of tools could be extremely helpful if your students were working on a research project. The tools would allow the students to save all their best sources and information so they can easily access it. Both of these tools allow students to be organized, so they don't have to keep searching through multiple websites for bits of information they deem essential.