Reflection

1) Did this course meet your expectations? Explain? (ok, that counts as 1 question :)
This course did meet my expectations. There was a lot of websites and internet things I learned that I know I will use in my classroom. My favorite was the Weebly which i would use as an icebreaker. Blogger which would be like a journal for the kids. and one true media which we would use for projects.


2) Why do you think this course should be required for all ED majors?
I think this course is great for ED majors becuase the things that we are learning are all things we can use in the ED classroom at almost any level


3) How will you implement technology into your future classroom?
I think i answered a lot of this in question 1. But there would be much more, internet resources, graphs and much more!

one true media

My Montage 5/14/09

weebly.com

1)what was the assignment
The assignment was to create a technology portfolio on weebly.com
2) what did you like/dislike about the weebly software
the thing I liked was that is was on the computer, so if your boss that you are interviewing with can go later and look through the profile with out having to waste paper on prining. The thing I dislike was that you could only insert one picture and that went for every slide instead of being able to put different pictures on each slide.

3)How would you use this as an educator?

As an educator i would use this as an icebreaker. I would allow the students to create and share

Elluminate Live

Ed tool Elluminate live is a way for people to chat, and interact from different computers. You can log on and be able to chat with others through typing or talking with a headset and microphone. The activity with the guest speakers was from my understanding being able to listen to guest speakers, and be able to respond or ask questions from the comfort of your home. Some positives of using elluminate live is that you do not have to be in the same room as them, you can be at home and still feel like you are in the room with every one else. The biggest negative part is that in order to log on to the class you must first get an invite. And if you do not recieve the invite then you are not able to be included with the class or to interact in all, which is what happened in my case. In the classroom I may use this for class discussions or presentations in the computer lab, just so the students can get a feel of how they can use this later on. I think Elluminate Live is a pretty good tool but has some kinks that need to be worked out. Also I noticed once when I was on before the timing of the speaking was way off. The words would come through like 5-10 minutes after the person had spoke.

Puzzle making

Today I experimenting on different sites to make crossword puzzles, and word finds. The sites I used turned out to be quick and easy. You just inputted the words and the cues and the site would create the puzzle. It was quick, easy and can be used for any grade level

Slide Show

For our group slide presentation we did a story on a opposite leprechaun. It was really fun! We made a story, and then we took pictures to create a slide show to match the story. It was a great activity that incorporates Langaugage Arts writing, reading and artistic skills. It was great.

Web Quest

Web Quest is basically a way to put your assignments, or lesson plans online for everyone to see. It is a way to share with the students what their activity is going to be without having to lecture, and allowing them to use technology to learn about their lesson. For our assignment we created a quest in which the children played detective, and had to search for all the letter A's. One thing I liked about the webquest was that you could put pictures and writing creatively and the children could go through the assignment step by step. One thing I disliked is that depending on what computer you were using, depended on how much you could do. For example my partner and I were working on the same project, same website, her computer could upload the photos, whereas my computer (the mac) could not up load the same photos. So that was somewhat frustrating. In the classroom I would use web quest to share with the students an exciting lesson that I had planned. I would allow them to go through the web quest on their own, and assist along the way to ensure that understood. By allowing them to go through it on their own, it would show me that the students could understand step by step directions by reading and looking at pictures. Also by allowing them to go through webquest they would use technology on their own.

Timeline

Today in class we worked with timelines. Using a free online source we were able to create a timeline with different dates, events and designs. One thing I liked was that there were different borders you could use for the timelines, so you could make it to your own liking. One thing that I disliked was that the site did not automatically organize the dates in order, so if you made a change, or added a date, you had to fix everything in order on your own. You could use timelines online in class for many different ways. You could use it as an icebreaker such as what we did to get the students to share something about themselves, they could use as a follow up activity to a story or literature reading, or they could use it in social studies for many different things.

The www.xtimeline.com seemed to be a little more complicated, but at the same time there was so much more you could do with it. You could add pictures, and edit, where as with the other timeline it was very limited on what you could add. I liked the xtimeline better just because you could add pictures and edit more. I think the xtimeline would be best for older students that are a little more comfortable with technology.

What we did on January 31, 2009

Today in class we checked out different word processors on the Internet. The advantage of using these is that it is free, and you can access it from anywhere! The disadvantage is that many of us had troubles with the computers, which means that the programs can only be used on certain computers and with certain connections. This is something to think about before you start using it in the classroom. One thing I learned today is different ways to use different word type programs. Another thing I found interesting was the google docs. This program will be very useful when you are doing writing workshops. The students could post their writings and then groups of students could peer edit the work. The only complication I could see with this program is that many schools only have 1 or 2 computers in the classroom. So only 1 or 2 students could do the editing at a time, but everyone could edit and share. Sorry but the computer won't let me upload the pictures of Thinkfree.com