Final Reflection

I have learned everything that I hoped to and more in this class. I wanted to find out ways that I can use technology in my classroom to diversify my instruction, and I have definitely done so. I have not only learned about, but I have experienced many different types of programs that would be great to use with my special needs students. I really love the ease of a lot of the things that we discussed. I thought that things like this would be much more difficult, but now I know that my students will be able to do them with only minimal assistance. This means that I can use technology with them, still cover the curriculum that I must, and they will have fun! Before this class, I was a little unsure about using technology in my classroom, but now I know it will play a huge role in my instruction!

Storybird, Google Site

I thought that storybird was interesting and fun. I think that it would be a great way to students interested in writing! I also love the fact that it gives pictures as prompts for writing. This would be great for students who are lower functioning or who sometimes have a hard time getting started. I do think that the number of illustrations available might be distracting to students, though. They might spend more time picking out pictures to use than they spend writing. This could be fixed with careful classroom management, though.

I am excited about seeing the final product of my google site! I think that this project has been very relevant to my future career, and I can't wait to use one with my class. The only draw back I can see about using a google site in an area like I am from is that many of the students may not have access to the internet.

Spreadsheet

Above is a screenshot from a contractions quiz that I created using a spreadsheet. I thought that this activity was really fun and would be extremely useful in a classroom! Even using this program to assess students would be great for diverse learners and would be something interactive for students that they would have fun with.

 

Animoto

I thought that Animoto was interesting, but I can only think of a few things to do with it outside of the classroom. Although I can see how it would be useful for diverse learners and as an alternative assignment for students with disabilities, I do not like the fact that everyone who uses it has to create an account. It is an easy process, but I do not think that there would be enough instructional time in some classroom to accommodate the process. Despite this, if everyone in the class could access the website, this might be a wonderful thing to use for students to create history presentations.

Personally, I thought that the digital scrapbook is very creative and fun. I would love to create one to share with my family for the holidays. In a classroom, the teacher could create a digital scrapbook to document the classes' experiences during the year.

Google Forms

I think that google forms could be very useful in the classroom. Although it would not always be plausible, I think that it would be a good idea for differentiating your instruction. You could provide different students with different types of exams. For example, you might want to give the students in your inclusion classroom a multiple choice test with three options for each question. Simultaneously, you could provide four options or essay questions for the students in your honors classes. This would be really easy to do using this program. Also, because the text is online, taking tests like this would also be a great choice for students with disabilities. Text reading programs could be used to aid these diverse learners without taking any additional instruction time. You could just give them a set of headphones and let them take the test on the computer while the other students take it on paper.

My favorite thing about this, though, is that it can show you statistics. So, if your entire class was taking an exam, it would very easy to figure out if a large portion of the class was struggling with a single concept!

Inspiration

Podbean

I think that Podbean would be very useful for students and teachers! There are so many ways that this tool could be used. It could be used as a way to communicate with both parents and students. You, as a teacher, could keep your parents informed about the activities that are taking place in the classroom. You could also provide them with a resource that they could use to help their students in the areas that are being covered in class. You could also provide your students with a resource for them to use if they missed a day of school or they simply do not understand a concept. This would also be a way to differentiate your instruction and reach auditory learners.  Besides presenting information to your students, this could also be a great way for your students to present material to you and other students. Instead of completing a paper assignments, your students could submit oral presentations.

Scavenger Hunt Presentation

Scavenger Hunt

I thought that the scavenger hut was fun. It was also a lot harder than I thought it would be. This was an assignment that required us to think outside of the box. I also liked that it was interactive. I think that this would be a great idea for use in a classroom. Students would be able to learn about both the concept that you are covering as well as technology. I also like how this concept could be applied to any subject and students at different levels would be able to effectively do an assignment using it.

October 24, 2011

Picnik and Smilebox

I actually had a lot of experience using picnik before this class. I think that it is super easy to use and allows you to do some fun things with your photos. I love that it is free, though. (For the most part.) I don't even think that the part you have to purchase is necessary. I have always been more than happy using only the free parts of the site. This could be a good tool to teach your students in a technology classroom to use.

Smilebox was also cool. I do not see myself using it very much though. I like that you can create fun entertaining invitations and slideshows, but, because I do not use the internet for communication very often (unless it is for school), I do not see this program providing much use to me. It might be a great way to create an online scrapbook for your classroom that parents can view, though. It also might be a fun way to incorporate a small amount of writing (in the picture labels and on the scapbook pages) into your lesson plans.  

I think that Wordle is a very interesting tool for use in the classroom. I like the way that it makes the most common words bigger and allows for structured creativity. Even though students can pick many of the aspects of their Wordle, the creativity is still limited. This could prevent it from being so time consuming.

The Timetoast website was interesting but not my favorite. I liked the interactive timeline idea, but it seemed like this could turn into a very time consuming activity for children. I do like the idea of having each student do one element of the timeline, though. Another thing that I did not like about the timeline is that it shows three things at a time. I did like, however, that it automatically saves. This would be very useful for children.

Delicious and Glogster

Delicious: I enjoyed how easy delicious was to use! I love to be organized and I know that this website could be a valuable resource for me. What I really like is the idea that my bookmarks can be viewed from any computer. I never liked using many bookmarks on my personal computer (unless it was a website that I used A LOT) because it felt like clutter to me. With this, though, I can add websites simply because I think they are cool, and I can look at them later. I think that this website would be very useful for teachers.

Glogster: To me, this website seemed very fun. I can definitely see a lot of uses for it in the classroom, but I see some down falls too. As fun as it is, that might be a distraction for students. There are many choices of elements that the students can use. I can imagine children focusing on their background more than the information. That is why I might suggest using it with older students. This could also be used by the teacher to present information in a fun, original way to the students. This would be a very good tool to use in any classroom!

Webquest

I found this webquest while doing a google search:

An Insect's Perspective

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/grant/insects/

When using this webquest, students will work together in groups of four to learn more about insects. Each member of the group chooses a single insect to learn more about. They can choose from: ants, cockroaches, bees, or termites. Each student will learn more about the insect that they chose and then have a group discussion about their insects. Following, each student will write a letter defending themselves to the exterminator. After the letters are finished, the group will get back together and create a poster to show the exterminator. This webquest is very well organized and easy to use. It provides the students with opportunities to work together and find out a lot of good information about all of the types of insects. I think that this assignment would be very good to use in a classroom during a unit on bugs.

WebQuest

Here is a link to a webquest that I found.

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/grant/insects/

On the website, it says that this webquest was made for second grade students. Although some of the vocabulary might be above the level of students this young, the quest is very well organized and easy to use. It contains a lot of information and very explicit instructions that would help the students to complete the assignment. I think that this tool could very easily be used in a classroom during a unit on insects.

The process of finding a evaluating this webquest was not too difficult. I found a website from google that led me to a list of webquests. From there, I clicked on several that no longer worked. Then I found this one, though. I clicked on the links to make sure that they went where they are supposed to and then I read the information to see if it sounded logical and factual.

Overall, this process was something that seemed plausible for a teacher to do in his/her classroom.

Website evaluation

I found this website that could be useful for educators when evaluating another site: Website Evaluation

This has a handy list that is organized and easy to see. It also has some good suggestions about things teachers could look for.

Website Evaluation

Wow! It was a lot harder to evaluate a website than I thought it would be! I never would have thought about all of the things that could make a website inappropriate for a student to use. After looking at several websites before choosing which one to do the assignment over, though, I have decided that it is very important for a teacher to review a website before introducing it to her classroom. There are also a lot of things to consider (like accessibility and credibility) during this process. I thought that this assignment was time consuming, but very beneficial! It was very helpful to learn all of the things that I should look for in a credible website.

Wikis

Wikis: I can really see the usefulness of them! They are super easy to change and access, but I will admit that mine has had me a little frustrated. After two weeks, I had forgotten how to do a couple of the formatting things that I wanted to. I have noticed that you cannot do some of the "pretty" things like I enjoy doing, but for simple, information sharing projects this would be perfect! Also, I love that they can be accessed from any computer.

Hippocampus Website Review

I would recommend this site with reservations because the authors are not readily visible for many of the videos. If a teacher had time to preview the information that he/she wanted their class to use, I think that this website could be very beneficial for students. Especially in the science sections, the simulations can represent concepts that would be more difficult for a teacher to describe using words alone. I also thought that it was interesting that this website was actually directed toward high school and college students. A lot of the videos would be hard to understand if the students had not previously reviewed the material. They would be a great supplemental resource, though!

Course Expectations

I hope to get from this class a better understanding of how to use the technologies that can be beneficial to my future students. I have always felt that technology could be very helpful with some students (especially in the field of special education) because it allows them to look at things differently. Hopefully, in this class, though, I will learn more specific information about how to help my students by using technology. I would also like to learn about programs that are not only helpful to my students but also to me as a teacher. The idea of using technology to help create lesson plans and organize materials is very interesting to me. I have taken a lot of computer courses that taught me how to use programs such as excel, powerpoint, and word, though, so I hope that this class will teach me something new (and more interesting)! :)

Introduction ot the Class

Informal Introduction to Class:
I was born and raised in Jamestown, Tennessee. I went to Alvin C. York Institute, and I am the first in my family to go to college. I love to travel, but have never really gotten the opportunity to do it much. I hope one day to be able to go to Europe and explore. I am going to be certified to teach both special education and elementary education when I graduate, but I am unsure which one I prefer to teach at this point. I have known for sure since I was in elementary school, though, that I wanted to be a teacher. I have taken a couple computer classes, but have rarely worked with more than word and powerpoint in them. I have learned a lot more about computers through experience.