Blog Post #6

I visited a website for Switlik Elementary School. Each teacher had a class page linked to the main website. Most of the class pages publicly showed information such as upcoming events, what the students are learning, and how parents can help their students continue to learn at home. Some of them also included material lists and special programs that the teachers do for their students. I specifically looked at the class pages for first grade students. The picture below depicts one of the class pages I visited.

I envision myself using technology in my classroom to make lessons more efficient and effective. I see myself using a smart board and allowing students to interact with it in order to make my lessons more engaging and interactive for the students. I also see myself using virtual reality in the classroom to take my students on virtual field trips. This would allow my students to explore many places that they might not actually get to go in real life.

Some new skills I acquired from working on the Web Evaluation wiki was how to create a wiki and also how to evaluate web sources. I liked that the wiki was fairly easy to create and after exploring the site for a little bit I had a pretty good grasp on how to use it. I did not like that only one group member could edit the wiki at once. This made it harder to all work on the wiki when it was convenient for us. In the future I can use these skills to create web evaluations for my students and even for myself to use in the classroom.

Blog Post #5

I think that podcasts and blogs are useful Web 2.0 technologies to use in the classroom and support teacher professional development. Podcasts are useful ways to disseminate factual information and engage students without you personally having to give the information. Also, it is a good way for teachers to publish their thoughts if they are interested in particular content and share it with others. I think blogs are useful because they allow for teachers and students to post their ideas in a setting where others can view them and discuss these ideas. I don't think that the Web 2.0 technology of wikis is useful in the classroom. I think this because anyone can change the information on a wiki so it makes it more difficult to review the wikis credibility. A strong computer network and a cloud system that students can log in to is necessary for allowing all students to access these Web 2.0 tools.

The Web 2.0 tool that I chose to explore was TeacherTube. This website, similar to YouTube lets you browse and search for videos. However, the videos on this tool are strictly educational and primarily for classroom use. You can choose to search for a variety of options such as videos, audio, documents, and photos. Once you search for something, a toolbar on the side will appear and you can refine your search even further. The toolbar has an option for each schools subject (Science, math, etc) which is helpful when looking for very specific informational tools. The home page of the site also lets you choose whether you are a student, teacher, or parent, and then tailors the search results to which option you picked.

I gained new skills by working on the concept mapping assignment. I liked that I had the freedom to arrange the information I was given in whatever way I wanted. I had difficulty at first, but I really like how the concept map draws connections between things and shows the information from a more visual perspective. As a visual learner I thought this was really neat. Next time I will take a more creative approach when thinking of how to start the map. In the future I can see myself using this tool to create guides and worksheets for my students.

Blog Post #4

LAFS.8.RL.1.2 
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters,setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. https://learnzillion.com/lesson_plans/8416-determine-the-central-idea#fndtn-lesson
The website is a lesson plan that gives the option for students to choose if they want a short or long version of the supplemental material. It has videos and tutorials on how to find the theme of a story. I would use it as a homework assignment that my students had to look over.

In the past I have just used google to search for resources by typing in what I was looking for. My methods, while not necessarily technologically advanced, relate to the method in the podcast of using open sources. This information is open to everyone and is predominantly what I used when doing research.

I learned new techniques on how to find sources from the internet. A surprise would be that it was definitely harder than I thought to locate the sources and relate them to and ELA standard. For the webhunt challenge, I challenge you to find these two things: A primary source video on the upcoming presidential election, and a lesson plan that covers the multimedia literacy standard.

Blog post #3

I feel like I am most prepared to teach multimedia literature. I had experience with this standard in my classrooms growing up and I feel like I have a good grasp on it.  I wish I had more preparation for "use multiple sources". While I know how to use multiple sources in my assignments I am not quite sure how to assess if someone else has. I feel like it will take me some time to grasp all the concepts required by the ELA standards.

Based on chapter 9 I think I want to use dropbox with my students. I have had many instances in which my computer crashes and I lose work, so I feel like dropbox would be very beneficial to my students. I think I will need to address appropriate and inappropriate web content with my students. I want to teach elementary school so it is important they are not exposed to anything they shouldn't be.

I acquired the skills to make an effective newsletter that actually looks somewhat appealing. I also learned more useful skills for Microsoft word.  I liked that it is going to help me prepare for when I actually need to make classroom newsletters. I didn't like that it took me a while to complete but that was mostly due to my slow technological skills. I also had a hard time thinking of the topics to include. 

Blog Post #2

As a student I have used Microsoft Word to type all my papers and typed assignments. I mostly just used it for essays in high school and in college. I have seen my teachers use it to create assignments as well as disseminate information to us. Now that I know how to use more functions on Microsoft Word, I anticipate myself using it more for assignments as well as personal work.

In my experience as a student, I have had to deal with the copyright and fair use of materials mainly by citing sources in a research paper, or by citing images. I did not really know much about the copyright and fair use laws until I read about them, but I have seen them play into my education to prevent plagiarism. As a teacher I would make sure to cite where I got any published information from and also to find out who created the source I want to use and what steps I need to take to use it. I was also stress to my students that they should always cite their sources.

I have a personal twitter account so I already knew how to use it. However, I never really used the hashtag for anything so I liked how I learned to connect to other is my class with the #FSUedtech hashtag. I like how I can see what others are posting pertaining to the class. In the future I can use this knowledge to connect with other teachers as well as share my own ideas through hashtags on twitter. Twitter would also be a good way to communicate with parents as well as students (if they are old enough to use Twitter)