I think in the classroom, youtube can be a valuable web 2.0 resource. It allows teachers to create playlists of videos and share those playlists with students which adds and element of interaction with the students. Not only can the students then watch the videos at their own leisure, but they can also comment and watch other videos that are related to the topic. I feel that, while twitter is useful, the points that the podcasts made are not all that realistic. If students are trying to ask a famous writer a question, it is highly unlikely that they will receive a response on twitter. While in theory, it is nice, in reality it is not likely to occur.
An education tool that I would use while teaching would be https://www.scribd.com . This site allows users to pay around $9 a month to have access to 3 books and 1 audio book a month. This membership fee would greatly decrease the costs of reading for students because books on their own can get expensive. It would also motivate students to read quickly, as they must get the best bang for their buck so to speak.
I believe the ability to video conference holds a large promise for education in the future. Through video conferencing, students would be able to meet with their teachers from the comfort of their own homes and ask questions about the homework they are doing or the paper they are writing all in real time. I also think video conferences will allow students to connect with a larger circle, including some well known people that they may not have had the chance to meet otherwise. A FaceTime with Bill Nye would mean so much more to students than simply watching his videos, and I believe that is where the classroom may be heading.
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