I am just amazed by the world of technology available to us and how far we have come is such a short time. Recently I read an article entitled, Better Learning With Sites and Sound, that explained a recent study that found that the use of web based tools in the classroom could improve academic performance. They mentioned a new trend in grading which involves the teacher actually having the ability to comment on a student work using an audio file. I am currently taking an online course and the first day of the class we received a message from our teacher and when we opened it, there she was speaking to us in a video. I thought it was so personal and added a individualization to a course that could be so anonymous. I loved the idea and as I began teaching a course last week at Buffalo State and I sent a message to my students beforehand welcoming them to the course.

Although article was referencing academic improvement in higher education, which is where I would implement it, I imagine that these tools would also be valuable in the primary and secondary school setting. Using webtools, such as GoogleDocs, could be valuable for any collaboration project, at any level. After experimenting with some of these tools over the past few weeks I wonder….What did we do without them?