End of the Term Reflection

My opinions on technology have changed since the beginning of the term. The reasons why are because I think at the beginning of the term I was somewhat scared of technology, because I would never consider myself to be a technology savvy person, however now I can say I have a good basic understanding of different things to do with technology. I can help my friends who are having issues on the computer rather than the other way around.  In the future I think the 2 things I would use most in my classroom is wordle because I think that is a fun crafy way to learn about something. I also think neat chat would really help because it is a great, safe way for students to all get together and talk about a project. Some web chats can get "trashy" for lack of a better word, and this is a good way for them to be in a safe situation and all be able to chat to one another.Print Page in IE

Wordle

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Favorite TrackStar link

My favorite link was under the math section and it was called Fun Math Online. This website was entertaining for me and made me want to do math on a regular basis. I really enjoyed this site more than the others because, me personally I am not a huge fan of math but this website made me want to do math on a regular basis which was nice. It kept my interest level up and there multiple games for multiple levels of math. Some of them would be games you would play for five minutes and others would be games you could play for 20 min. I really like the way they organized that because you never know how much extra time you may have so this website it set up in a way that no matter how much time you have, the kids can go to the site and use to.Print Page in IE

Favorite PBL

My favorite project out of the 6 is the one about Hiking the Appalachian Mountains. I like this one most because the layout is very nice, and the page was not too jumbled and its very easy to look at, to start off with. However aside from the look of the project I also think its very good because it pertains to all ages, so if you were using this for younger children they may feel more compelled to do this project because it's something their parents may enjoy hearing about too. Older people may have an interest in this because it easily relates to those that are interested in hiking. In the Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid I think this project relates to the "application" level because it being out in a new situation and I think most of us have not planned a trip to the Appalachians' so I think this is taking a new situation and applying it to your life, which is a very useful skill to have, because you will be put in new situations all the time.Print Page in IE

telecollaborative work

Telecollaborative work can be useful in many different ways, it can teach students to work together as an obvious one but it can go much deeper than that. I think this tool can help with critical thinking skills because it helps bring the group together, and helps them problem solve together over the internet, making it a little bit easier to collaborative steps at a time. This can help get them to where the need to be faster, in order to be able to critically think!Print Page in IE

Integrating Technology in the classroom

My personal experience with computers in the classroom is mostly throughout my k-12 experience I did not need to use a laptop of any sort, but we did have a computer lab from elementary school up until high school at the schools I attended. It was fairly basic, we never used them on an everyday basis except when I took the class computer skills in high school which actually was mostly a typing class. My ideas for integrating technology in the classroom is mostly to start kids using computers at a younger age, this is very important because I did not start using a computer until middle school and I think children should at least learn to open up a browser and start learning to type before then. I think for children of a younger age I would start playing computer games with them that also incorporate learning. I also think something like this would be good for students at a high school level, its a more interesting way to do homework. I think my biggest issue that I see happening with using technology in the classroom, is sometimes students are more reluctant to do everything over the computer, also I don't like to depend on the internet. The internet can be flakey, you can go in and out of service, and so on, so I could see that being another issue to run into.Print Page in IE

Avatars in Education

Avatars can be useful in education because it can help with teaching children of a younger age. For children that are particularly distracted and may be hard to deal with in the classroom, and avatar can create a situation that will put interest into learning. Not only will the avatar help a children have fun while learning, but also if a child is making their own avatar they also get a sense of how to use up to date technology. Avatars can create a sense of individuality for a child, in a fun way, that helps them learn more about up to date technology.Print Page in IE