Web Resources

I thought all of the web resources we discussed in class were useful.  I especially like Rubistar, United Streaming, and Ethemes.  Rubistar is a great tool to have.  Instead of making your own rubric it does it for you.  This cuts down some time on projects and lessons. Rubistar has really good rubrics for projects that would be great for the classroom.  I would use Rubistar in my classroom because I use it now for my education classes.  It helps that Rubistar is easy to use also.  United Streaming is awesome.  I love all the videos that you can use in your classroom.  It is easy to navigate and is broken into different sections.  I love the videos for all of the subjects.  Especially videos for Science and Social Studies.  I feel that these two subjects are harder to understand for some students.  Showing a video for these subjects might help the students grasp certain concepts.  I loved the magic school bus when I was a child and was happy to see it was still present now.  I also enjoyed Ethemes, I liked the lesson plans and the activites they had for the students.  United Streaming would be most useful to me.  I loved the videos and the lesson plans that went with them.

Inspiration

I really like Inspiration.  I think that it's really useful in a classroom.  There are so many different things you can do to enhance your classroom.  Inspiration can be used to create lab reports.  You can make visual handouts.  Students can make Venn Diagrams to use in Science. For example, they can compare and contrast animals.  Both students and teachers can use concept maps. Teachers can use a concept map to plan out their unit objectives.  Students can use a concept map to help them learn.  Concept maps can even be used for Pre-K and Kindergarden because you can use pictures on the map.  You can use a concept map to create a job chart for your classroom.  Inspiration can be used for cause and effect activites.  It is also used for productivity tools and assessments.  This can also be used to make outlines( show relationships between characters in a play or book), graphic organizers, worksheets, and study guides.  I would use Inspiration in my classroom because there is so many things you can do with it.

Social Bookmarking

I believe social bookmarking would be a great application in the classroom.  Students can use a bookmarking site to save websites that will be beneficial for all the student's to excel in certain subjects.  If students had to find background information on different writers lives they can bookmark all the websites that they find.  This can give organization skills to the students as well as making it easier to search online.  As a teacher social bookmarking can organize all the lesson plans I would use in my classroom. Instead of going to Google and typing in to find the website again I could just bookmark it.

I think social bookmarking could help me out now.  I search the internet for new websites everyday.  I like to read quotes and there are many websites that offer really good ones.  If I bookmarked these websites I would not have to use a search engine all the time.  Social bookmarking makes everything fast and easy.  Also, lesson plans that I find now I can save in my bookmarking.  Social bookmarking seems like a really good idea no matter if your a student, teacher, parent, or just someone who searches the web. 

GoogleApps

I really like GoogleApps I feel that it is fairly easy to navigate. I like all the different things you can do on it.  I never knew it existed until now. I plan on using GoogleApps now that I know about it.  It seems like it would be a good tool to have whether your in elementary school, high school, or college.  If I were to work in a group it would make my life easier because  I could share information quickly.  We wouldn't have to send emails back and forth to each other. ( which can get so confusing) I like how when you type in words it saves everything you write, right away.  That is really cool.  Because unlike a word document you have to constantly save your work. A disadvantage is they don't have as many applications.  For example, in the presentation section they have less backgrounds and details.  Some of the things GoogleApps offers are presentations, text documents, spreadsheets, drawings,images and videos.  They offer a wide variety of applications to use. 

Incorporating blogs in your classroom

I think incorporating blogs is a great way to grasp students attention. When students are given readings  for homework they can respond on a blog.  They can respond answers, ideas, or even questions about the readings.   Also, you can have students write about how they feel that day. I would use this idea for maybe a Special Education classroom.  When I observed a Special Education classroom they wrote in journals so blogs would probably have the same effect. For a science experiment, students can blog their findings.  And if each group has a blog they can look at other groups answers. Blogging is a good source of communication, rather than emailing back and forth.

A disadvantage to using technology is it does not always work.  Internet connection does not always work properly in the classroom.  Also, not every child has access to a computer at their home.  Parents may also disagree with using technology if technology is not used at their home.

Technology has many advantages.  Most technology intrigues the child to want to learn.  Students seem more excited about the lesson if somehow technology is incorporated.  Using technology brings new ideas.