Thing 18

I absolutely love Widgets! They are very user friendly and require no advanced knowledge of technology.

I think that there are many different ways in which widgets can be used within the classroom. On a class wiki, we could include countdowns to important dates like tests, projects, or field trips. I think that students would really like exploring with them and trying different widgets. I am beginning to think that the more technology that is used, the more engaged students may be. They are much more advanced when it comes to technology than I am, and I am really not much older than them.

I loved the Grammar Girl widget. I am always looking for ways to make learning grammar fun for students. I would bet that my students would rather interact with something like this rather than a boring worksheet.

Writing is another area in which students struggle. This widget for writing is awesome! It helps students by giving them prompts for new writing ideas. It provides them with a series of tools to make the writing process easier.

I could use a widget map in my classroom when teaching novels like Huck Finn. We could use an interactive map to track Huck and Jim's travels down the Mississippi River. I would like to find a widget that deals with short story elements. It seems that this is dry in the unit that I teach and would like new ideas on ways of teaching that content.