"Wallwisher: A Geeky Teacher's Dream Tool"

Keith Ferrell writes an article about his favorite tool: Wallwisher. Wallwisher is a web based bulletin board that allows students to add their own text notes, pictures, ideas, videos, etc. This is a great way for students to collaborate and work together without necessarily being in the classroom and without it having to be through social media sites or plain emails. Ferrell explains some of the projects that he used Wallwisher for in his classroom which include collaboration of facts on a specific topic that each child can contribute to or a board where students can add tips to help other students in certain topic areas and add new vocabulary words and their definitions that may be helpful for their classmates. I feel that this is a great way to really engage kids in helping other students learn while learning themselves. As pictured above, this would probably work best in the classroom with the help of a smart board or even if the classroom is in a computer lab for a certain amount of time. Personally, I feel that this would work best outside of the classroom, that way students can keep coming back to the board to see if anybody has posted any new facts, topics, information, etc.

This article is great for teachers because it adds a new tool for them to get their kids learning together. I know that individual learning is what everybody is used to when growing up, but it's great for teachers to get their students to do some pieces of group work that way they are prepared for all the group projects that they will encounter in middle school and high school and college as well. Plus, teachers can keep an eye on the board to see who is participating and what is being posted so that there is no false information or inappropriate things being posted. Overall, I would definitely use this app in my classroom because I think it will end up benefiting everyone in the classroom.

The ISTE NETS standard for students I would choose that relates most to this article would be standard two: Communication and Collaboration. It says it all in the title, students would use this app to communicate and share with each other different pieces of information that other students may have not known and can benefit from, and all the students can collaborate together to build a "fact wall" or maybe a synonym chart for maybe certain vocabulary words they might be dealing with that week.

Ferrell, K. (2011) Wallwisher: A Geeky Teacher's Dream Tool. Learning & Leading with Technology, 38(7), 30-31. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201105#pg32