Web+2.0+tool

*Figure 1: This image is provides a link to Kidblog.org

"Kidblog": What is it?
One Web 2.0 tool (web based learning tool) that could enhance the teaching of my group's Gold Rush lesson is "kidblog.com." Kidblog allows educators to create a safe (password accessible) blog for his or her students to write and respond to each other with.

How to use it:
Teachers, as account instructor, can create their own webpage with as many questions prompts as they wants. Students gain access by being enrolled, whereupon they receive their own username and password. The instructor can also permit "guest" to gain access to the page. The teacher creates a writing prompt. Then students are able to write their own response, and comment on other's work. The instructor can also comment. A setting that allows the instructor to edit and approve all posts is provided.



Figure 2: This showcases the many discussion threads teachers can create.

Figure 3: This image showcases one of the writing prompts created by Mrs. Madlin, a seventh and eighth grade social studies instructor

Figure 4: This image shows me, Ms. Gordon (a guest to the forum), commenting on a student's post.

Incorporating Kidblog Into My Lesson:
This Web 2.0 tool could easily be incorporated into my group's lesson plan on the Gold Rush. I could supplement my lesson by having my students write a blog post at the end of the class, rather than writing a "point-of-view" in the form of a fifty words or less. I could ask students to write a response to, "How did the sharp realities people faced during the gold rush live up (or not live up) to their expectations of what they would find?" I could also encourage them to cover different groups affected by the Gold Rush (Native Americans, miners, women, children, Chinese immigrants, etc.). This activity would allow students to engage with one another in a more interesting manner where they all feel comfortable (with the technology and the website's seemingly non-threatening method of sharing ideas). Further, blogging's interactive feature would enable students to teach each other (through the use of commenting).