Blog #8

Chapter seven was interesting, it covered internet and other distance learning learning tools. There are many helpful tools on the internet such as research paper websites that your students can use. I think there are many postive and negative effects on distance learning tools. They can cause de-socialization, but also have the capabilties to bring in information that the teacher cannot provide. Technology can also create several different oppertunities for students, for instance creating blogs for students to communicate outside of the classroom. They can do this with blogs, bulletin boards, and videoconferencing. Although, there are downfalls to that too, some sites may have inaproprate information, and students could post that for all to see. I believe that I will use these types of internet tools to help me with my classroom such as the search engines, google, dogpile and hotbot. There are many collaboration sites to help teachers use technology to, like MUD, MOO and Advatars. It was a very useful chapter.

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Blog #5

An educator who is using a basic software tool in an innovative way for instruction is my chemistry professor. She uses the power point software tool in every lecture to help students have a visual. It is very helpful for the students so they can take down notes by listening to her lecture and visualy seeing the processes. My professor posts all of the power points on the internet. This is also a helpful tool because if a student is sick one day and needs the notes they will not have missed out, or if the student did not understand something in class they could go back and inquire about it. Power point in the classroom in a high school classroom would be effective but only in small amounts. The class are a lot smaller than a college class and the students are much younger therefore the teacher needs to keep the student more engaged than just a power point every single day.

Blog #7

This is an educational video I found on teacher tube. My content area is science-biology for education and I wanted to find some video I could use in the classroom or something to give me ideas. This video is about the process of mitosis and the creater made it with a series of papers and drew designs on them. It gave me ideas to make my own videos for the classroom. Or have students make videos as an alternative assessment.

Blog #6

I found this picture in the creative commmons website. It is of cathedral arhitecture in Spain. I chose it because I am very interested in the hispanic culture and did a search for Spanish Arhitecture. I found many pictures that I would be able to use in powerpoints or even for my digital story that I am currently working on. Creative commons is a very useful site with many types of resources.

Concept Map for Digital Story. (pollution)

Blog #4

I looked through several websites for new innovative software. I found that looking at websites that I could purchase software on, were more informative than just Google them. The website I found had software called, SolidWorks Student Edition 2007-2008 with Cosmic Blobs. It has 3D graphics and activities for the classroom that have familiar windows functions; therefore it is easy to figure out. Four main additions it has are SolildWorks, Animator, SolidWorks Toolbox, PhotoWorks, eDrawings. These parts of the software provide instructions to design drill and practice activities, tutorials, simulations, and instructional games. It also has a resource called the cosmic blogs, which are endless ideas for activities in the classroom. It has a lot of 3D computer modeling fun; its use could go towards laboratories in science. The only faults it has are that the software cease to work after 24 months of activation, and you need to have systems required like windows XP and such. The software provides use for 13 different languages too. It is very applicable software, although it has a cost of $89.95. I think for all of the software and activities it provides it’s worth the price.
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Searching Classroom 2.0

I was searching classroom 2.0 for innovated software technology and I found a forum about math and reading software. Although it brought me to a site called eSchool News online. It has a lot of helpful technology information and resources. There is information about conferences and different grants and funds. There is a link for school actions for emergency’s, and an interesting video center. Go check it out!!http://www.eschoolnews.org/

Blog #3

I researched www.learnnc.com as my informative instructional website. It had intuitive and successful practices from lesson plans and teaching strategies. This site is useful for students and teachers; it has current research to online courses. The online site was organized with useful educational links, and an accessible search feature. I found that there lesson plans link was very useful and I could definitely use it for my future teaching. My content area is biology, therefore I looked at the science lesson plans and I found one about the rise and fall of mammoths. The lesson plan was an overview of the day with a main goal and then three standards/objectives to incorporate in it. The site also provides CEU course which are a variety of online course and training for students and teachers. The training helps teachers understand how to use new technology in classrooms like blackboard discussion for students. There is another link that brings you to several other educational websites that are searchable and catalog up to 3,000 educational websites. I did not find any usage charges for anything, so it is a very practical site for any student or teacher. This site is very useful and I absolutely will use it in the future.