A Recap of Classroom 2.0's – Saturday LIVE Show: Technology in the First Grade Classroom (June 12, 2010)

I attended a pretty fascinating online discussion yesterday on Classroom 2.0’s weekly “Saturday LIVE Show”. The guest speaker was Aviva Dunsinger (Twitter ID: @grade1), a grade 1 teacher with Hamilton-Wentworth district school board (Hamilton Ontario, Canada).

She talked about her experiences using various web 2.0 tools with her 1st graders. You would think most 1st graders wouldn’t be up to a whole lot in school besides activities like drawing pictures and learning their ABC’s, but times have definitely changed. Today’s primary grade students are now “wired” more than ever and would eat alive many my first year university students with respect to technological know-how.

All the discussion participants were just so amazed not only because 1st graders have been able to use these web 2.0 tools, but the breadth and variety in which they have been using them was astounding as well. From now onward, I have a new outlook on today’s primary grade students, and will no longer underestimate the knowledge and potential they possess.

Anyway, the following is a brief rundown of some of the new (well, at least for me) tools I was exposed to. For a complete list, you can find them here: gl.am links (http://gl.am/qi7_b)

Crocodoc - share and mark up PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations online

Evernote - save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer, phone or device you use. For free.

Today’s Meet - helps you embrace the backchannel and connect with your audience in real-time.

Storybird - short, visual stories that you make with family and friends to share and (soon) print.

Posterous - place to post everything. Just email us. Dead simple blog by email.

Kidblog - simple, yet powerful tools allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community.

Twitter-related apps:
Twitpic - post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, our API, or through the site itself.
Twitvid - easiest and quickest way to share videos on Twitter from your phone or computer. Also, you can share videos in real-time.
Twitlonger - simple service that lets you post those tricky messages that really do need more than 140 characters and send them to Twitter.
Twiducate - social networking site for schools. Share links, resources, questions, ideas, reflections, etc. with your students.

Click on the image below to view the recording session: