Friday 25 May 2012

Use of Web 2 in Teaching Business Studies

                                      
The tools investigated in this blog are:

1. PODCAST
A podcast icon

The following is a link to a podcast hosting site that has some free podcast service. http://www.podbean.com/ . The writer created a podcast which can be viewed by clicking the page at the left.

2. ONLINE BOOKMARKING

Bookmarking icons

Follow the link below and one can find a website with information on the Human Resources Office.
http://www.bookmarkall.com/BookMark/bookmark.aspx?add=1&bid=356789


3. WIKI AND BLOG
4. SOCIAL NETWORKING and,

The above are icons that represent various social networking sites.

5. RSS FEEDS

Podcast


Podcasts are great ways for teachers to achieve more instructional contact hours in less face-to-face time. Since information and instructions can be recorded and published over the internet, for access by the user at his convenience. Moreover, the user can save this information and use it in any convenient form. The teacher can create podcast or have students and teachers bookmark valuable podcasting sites as the visit them and share this information with members in the group. When creating podcast teachers must use podcast names that will grab students’ attention. Remember that the attention span of some students is short and thus podcasts should be short. If you live outside of the USA, some free podcast may not be available to you. Interviews on topics of interest can be podcasted, bookchat can be encouraged amongst students, bookreport of particular themes may be encouraged, collaboration on particular themes may be possible, students can post internet references, teacher can post challenges for students, set out revision and homework task, facilitate self-paced learning, assist learners with reading difficulties or slow learners by using podcasts. To create podcast one can download audacity a free podcast software and record the material (usually in the form of voice data) to be podcasted. A media player, which has public broadcasting features, is use to import and save the podcast.


Online Bookmarking
Online bookmarking gives the opportunity to users to free their browers from the clutter one experiences with bookmarking yet provide an opportunity to access a wider array of bookmarked websites. Sites such as bookmarkall.com affords the user the opportunity to store, share and access a variety of websites from any computer anywhere in the world. Online bookmarking sites allow the user to access other persons bookmarks stored on the site provided these are stored as public topics. In addition, it allows other users to see topics you bookmarked as public topics. The writer bookmarks may be access at bookmarkall.com by clicking brows user and the username kaiteurqueen. The reader will see only the public topic bookmarks of kaiteurqueen at .http://www.bookmarkall.com/BookMark/bookmark.aspx?add=1&bid=356789

Further, other online bookmarking sites are available and a plethora of sites is available on the internet. Teachers can bookmark sites under specific topics and encourage students to visit same to complete assignments, research, widen views, pre read topics etc, also teachers can share these links with other members of the profession. The following sites are useful to any business studies teacher but we must appreciate that bookmarking then in one place can be of little use to the wider learning community, hence a need for the use of online bookmarks. Information on economics from incentives, demand, to banking http://dirkmateer.com/econ-topics, http://www.econedlink.org/,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/makingsense/ US mint has a website that has games to help students learn about money etc. http://www.themint.org/; http://www.usmint.gov/kids/campCoin/collectorsWorkshop/getAClue/case09/
Wiki and Blogg
Wikis and bogs are free open source web hosting sites that allow users to create and edit web page using any browser. People who may not have much information technology knowledge but can read and use a computer usually create these wiki and bogs. This writer created this blog for the first time and is surprised and fascinated at the ease of creation. Imagine students creating bogs to share and as part of assignments etc. I can visualise the enthusiasm and creativity in getting the work done. In addition, the rich interaction and sharing of knowledge is likely to improve language, comprehensive, and maybe interpretation etc. of the topic.

Social Networking
Textbooks are constantly printed and this leaves the busy teacher with little or no knowledge of additions to the stock of materials in his/her field. LibraryThing.com allows users to catalogue books online on specific topics and share these on the internet. Users are provided with the names of a wide collection of books on a particular topic and give the reader an indication as to the popularity of the book.

RSS
An RSS feed is one of the ways an individual may use to check the changes to website content. Rather than visit the site constantly one may use RSS feeds to check specific sites and notify you when an update is available. For the business teacher who is subscribing to Forbes magazine an RSS feed may notify him/her of update on specific topic. Students may be encouraged to subscribe to feeds in their area of interest. Feeds like Google feedburner can notify you of any new feeds to your blog or website. Adding such feeds to the toolbar is a great way to do this.

Summary
It is important to note that web 2 tools can be valuable to the teacher in reaching children with all learning styles. Auditory learners may benefit from audio podcasts, visual learners may benefit from wiki, blogs, and video podcast, and kinesthetic learners may benefit from podcast video demonstrations and youtube videos. Note all learners stand to benefit from the use of bookmarking and the use of RSS feed. Regardless of the tool used, all learners must be encouraged and influenced by the teacher. Finally, teachers need to embrace technology and may find it necessary to use RSS feeds to keep abreast of the ever-evolving web 2.0 technologies.

















All images downloaded from the internet were checked for licence for free sharing.