Post 8

The Dynavsion active and interactive learning machine would be really awesome for students who suffer from ADHD or even some levels of autism. The machine has the user say aloud number combinations or solve various levels of math problems while simultaneously hitting buttons when the light flashes. Being able to not only get to practice math but also getting move and be active is very stimulating and can be very beneficial for so many students. This can also be helpful for shy students in my opinion because they are able to get up and move and have fun while having to speak up with solving problems.

PowerPoint is arguably the most common and easiest form of information delivery as an educator. With PowerPoint, we are able to pose more questions for students and provide more interactive assignments. Memorizing is a good skill for game shows, but to truly develop an educated mind, understanding concepts and how information can interact is essential. PowerPoint can help the educator accomplish this for their students.

Blogs are a great way to stay informed on what trends are happening and how well technology is being incorporated in to classroom. Lisa Nielsen is an educator who runs “The Innovative Educator” blog. She decided when she was in public school that her teachers taught in a very boring and irrelevant way. In an effort to change this, she has incorporated technology in unique ways to create a more interactive and exciting learning environment.  

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/

Post 7

There are so many assistive technologies out in the world. Virtually anything can be made possible with technology. These can include inspiration that can help reading and writing, CoWriter to help remember words and their meaning, and audiobooks that allow the student to read along. I personally have not used these technologies, however my doctor uses dragon dictation during appointments instead of writing her own notes to gain a more accurate description of health and provide quicker appointments. With any technology, glitches will occur. This is the biggest issue I foresee in the classroom. When a teacher is planning a lesson around using a technology and it does not work, frustration and inefficiency occurs.

I acquired many skills while building my webpage. Since I have never experienced building a webpage, this was completely new to me. I ran into some issues with the formatting of the site itself, I had problems figuring out how to make certain paragraphs look the way I wanted and have the layout I envisioned. Although I did get frustrated a few times, I eventually figured out how to cooperate with the site and I believe created the website I had pictured in my head beforehand. In the future, I would definitely add more details and give the page a more sophisticated, finished look. I think that having a class website is extremely helpful, they can help not only my students remember assignments but also myself and keep the entire class, me included, accountable for assignments and lesson plans.

Diigo is such a great resource for group or class collaboration. The site allows for the creation of groups and anyone in a group can bookmark a website for the whole group to see and review. Not only does diigo allow bookmarking, but also annotation of those websites. Any group member can leave notes, highlights, and tags on a page. This would be perfect for group research projects.

Post 6

I was not able to access class websites from the school’s website, so I looked for the class website by itself. Once I did this, I was able to access various classes from the high school I attended. Most have a similar color scheme (orange and black for the school colors) and many also include some picture of a lion (school mascot). About half of the websites include pictures of students doing an activity the class can be represented by. The information included a general explanation of the courses, prerequisites if necessary, and contact information for the school.

 I see myself using and updating a website, blog, or microblog in my classroom. I feel like these are all really great resources for students and parents. With this, keeping reminders for my students and myself become for efficient and hopefully more effective.  I also will definitely take advantage of recording and lesson planning programs. When lessons are made into digital files, the following years of teaching will be much less work as far as planning goes.

For sure I will be taking advantage of the technology of the smart boards. These are amazing, especially for classes that need to get up and move once and awhile. Being able to solve problems on the page, and having the advantage of being able to incorporate movements and activities into the lesson is so great for visual and kinesthetic learners. Not only can the board connect to your computer, you are able to save pages of work done on the board which is perfect for students to review. I think that any subject, any grade, and any teaching style have options for being able to use smart boards effectively.

https://voicethread.com/share/8324409/

Post 5

There are so many improving and emerging websites and pages to use in the classroom. I think that technologies that are simple to use and can incorporate faster, more efficient communication are the best for classroom use. These technologies can include twitter, which is great for fast reminders, blogs, can be used as or to submit assignments, and diigo, for efficient collaboration in collecting data. Technology use also really depends on the age group. For example, handing out iPads to a kindergarten class and having them each set up and manage their own website may not be the best idea, but using the same assignment in a high school class would be very effective.

Delicious is a really great resource for teaching. The site allows the user to save and organize links that will always be ready use or go back to. This makes lessons and planning much more efficient because having all the sites saved in the same place can cut down time spent on trying to find the cool picture or informational webpage.  To check it out, click HERE.

In my opinion, cloud computing is the technology that holds the biggest promise for education. Cloud computing is already so useful and convenient for storing webpages, pictures, songs, documents, ect. With growing innovations in technology and a growing rate of available space in many devices, I believe that clouds will enter the classroom very soon, if not already. Sites such as dropbox and google drive make sharing information so easy and multiple people can look at and edit pages simultaneously. These sites can also be accessed through apps in any device. 

Post 4

Twitter has been a really fun assignment for me. Although I have a personal twitter as well, I hadn’t gotten that into the network mostly because I did not exactly understand how it worked and wasn’t very motivated to figure it out. I have really enjoyed being able to follow certain education pages such as Education Nation and edutopia. I am able to keep up to date with the happenings in the education world much more conveniently. I think twitter is an awesome resource for teacher use, tweets are short, sweet, and to the point which is what most students prefer when getting answers to when assignments or tests are due.

The digital divide has a most prominent influence on students in rural areas. Many will not have computers at home or have very limited access. These students may not be familiar with such programs as Math Analogies and Reading Blaster that can provide assistance in learning a topic. As a teacher, I also need to realize that not every student knows how to operate Microsoft Word or PowerPoint to make presentations. These setbacks not only result in a slower learning environment, but will also cause students to be unprepared to enter the 21^st century work force.

When evaluating a website, you should always look for the currency, authority, accuracy, and objectivity of the website. These will give insight into how relevant or current the website is, if there are errors, or if there is any bias to the page. I also look for how neat the website is. If the page is cluttered and links are not easily accessible I will most likely move on and not use that webpage. This is important to me because I need to make sure I am receiving the correct information and if links are messed up or confusing, I may jumble some of the information.