My name is Laura Zalfa. I found a unique web2.0 tool! It is the website TRAMLINE, which features virtual field trips. This was developed in 1996 and is still being used today. This was developed specifically for educational use, to help organize the Web for students. The website is made by TourMaker© software. TourMaker© is the top tool for creating Virtual Field Trips and Web Tours.

This site is a free tool for grades K-12 educators anywhere! TourMaker can be used to guide students through a sequence of Web pages on any given topic. For each visited Web page, educators are provided a Narration frame. This is where teachers can write their own information concerning the web page, or instruct students to complete an assignment. Students can move forward and back through the Field Trip using the tour Control Panel.

I think this would be a great way for teachers to further connect with students. The internet is full ways we can be taking education a step further. Taking students on a virtual “tour” of a specific subject through different places on the internet is a great way to make the most of resources available to us. Students are mostly familiar with their social networking sites, and often times get lost when it comes to using the internet for school subjects. This is a great way for teachers to lead their students through the internet and direct them to appropriate and useful web sites.

I would like to see teachers become more modern for the next generations. We now live in a world where field trips do not have to consist of crowded buses and worrying about budgets! Teachers have much more opprotunity to teach students outside of the typical classroom setting.

Would you like a virtual field trip?

After trying Facebook out for the first time, I can see why social network sights are becoming very popular and important. I've heard some horror stories about myspace, but that's because I'm only hearing about how people use it to express themselves in very provocative ways. But, I've learned that social networking sites aren't all evil depending upon how they're being used.

The highest ranking people in this country are taking advantage of them in order to communicate information on a global or national basis through text, video, or pictures. Also to my own understanding, news media like Fox29 are taking advantage of social sites like twitter and facebook in order for people to quickly keep up with up to the minute information. This goes to prove that social networking could be educational because it keeps people informed of what's happening in this world.

Another so fascinating about social sites on the web, is that they can be accessed through a mobile device which means you can post anything while you're on the go. I do that with facebook, and I love it.


Social networking today was never possible back in the old days because we had very slow modems back then. Now with a high demand for broadband at cheap prices, that's not a probelem as the internet is starting to become more flash intensive in order to encourage interactivity and to create more appeal.

Take advantage of social networking sights for positive things like to encourage a friend halfway across the world. Add Joseph Ryan as your friend on Facebook if you have an account with them. Facebook could be really effective communication tool for this class. Have a good day.