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.