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What is Wetoku? No, it's not a made up word for some type of animated character (think Pikachu). It's a web tool used to do interviews (Dabbs, 2011). It is also the topic of "Summer PD: New Teacher Boot Camp Week 4 - Using Wetoku." This tool seems really useful and practical. It works "sorta" like Skype, but doesn't require any extra software to be downloaded. It is all web based (Dabbs, 2011), an advantage for using it on school computers.
After reading Dabbs' blog and watching her screencast (see below) I could think of many useful ways to use this web tool in science. It could be used to interview someone from a country that uses the metric system (our students are really bad with metric measurements). It could be used to interview a scientist or professor in another town, city, state, or country for research projects. It could be used to make mock interviews where the students pretend to be an expert on a topic we studied (especially using the one way interview mode).
I could really see using this tool to a greater extent in a social studies class. It could be used to connect with people all around the world. The possibilities are seem pretty limitless.
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Works Cited
Dabbs, L. Summer PD: New Teacher Boot Camp Week 4 - Using Wetoku. Edutopia. Retrieved July 26, 2011 from <iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ozYtZafwDwE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
What a unusual name, Wetoku, sounds like it originates from japan. I will have to bookmark this information. I recently found out that Google plus that has recently come out has a feature where you can do Skype type features where up to ten people online who can communicate together as group. I have not tried it, but I plan to soon and may be able to do it from my smartphone.
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