Journal 8

Focus Question:

How can teachers use email or instant messaging services to foster information exchanges with and among students?

Technology has become such a necessity in students’ lives. Whether they are using them to talk with their friends, email, game, or social media students always have their devices on them, adolescents are the biggest users of these technologies. Many teachers, especially in older grade settings, use emails to get in contact with their students to relay messages about class or any assignments that have been given. Emails are one of the easiest and most time efficient ways to get information across to students, parents, or other teachers. As for instant messaging teachers typically stay away from that sort of technological resource due to informal language used along side the messages. Almost everyone has email on their smart phones and can access them at any point during the day, this being so close at hand makes teachers lives a lot easier in relaying messages to students, teachers, and parents outside of the classroom!

Tech tool:

8.1 Teacher website and blog-building resources

This tech tool explains in depth about all the different ways teachers can go about using the Internet and blogs to create informational pieces for students, parents, and other teachers. There are so many options that teachers have when creating a website or blog ranging from cost, build your own sites or there more cost efficient sites that have pre-made templates you can download and use.  Dreamweaver is a good example of a site that is helps you create your own site or blog. TaskStream, go Daddy, and eblogger are all sites that have pre-made templates available to the public to use and plug in information.  There is also an open source software program you can use also to create sites and blogs such as Moodle. Moodle provides discussion boards, email options, instant messaging, and discussion forums for school districts and individual classrooms.

Photo credit to TechmansWorld on google images

Summary:

Chapter 8 is all about the use of Internet in transmitting information different ways to students through the Internet and technological resources.  To me this chapter is very informative on how to access the internet, emails, instant messaging, wikis, websites, and blogs to provide information to students outside the classroom or for them to use as a reference to a current project or assignment that they are working on. I was not currently up to date on all the different sites mentioned in this website like the wiki or any type of build-your-own website or blog. This class has now gotten me comfortable in using each of those different sites and I have grown accustomed to using them. The Internet can really provide anything and everything a teacher needs to put information in a place so that all of their students, parents, and other teachers can easily access it.

Journal 7

Focus question:

How can teachers use computer games and simulations as learning resources?

This topic is still thought of little value by some Psychologists and educators but to others technological resources that incorporate gaming a thought of very highly. In everyday life students, more so boys are playing video games, computer games, or web-based games, it is a big entertainment setting in their lives. Computer games advocate active learning styles in all subjects. Online games help grab students attention and get them interested in learning. It is not just a boring lecture anymore it is hands on involving all students. To successfully implement computer, web-based games in the classroom teachers should focus more on games that accumulate and subtract points to assess students knowledge on the subject matter rather than games solely based on isolated skills.

Tech tool:

7.2 A Math Learning Game- Zoombinis Logical Journey

Zoombinis is a series of games for all different subjects in school. This series in particular is to help teach critical thinking, problem solving, and mathematical learning for elementary school aged students. Zoombinis consists of tiny creatures with different hair, eyes, nose, and feet you get to choose to create your own character. The characters on a journey home to claim their ancestral territory and there are puzzles and games that pose as obstacles they must conquer in order to reclaim their ancestry. The game consists of trial and error lessons to help the students navigate through correct problem solving. This game series to me is very helpful to students because they are actively involved in the lesson and they must pay attention and assess the knowledge so that they can make steps closer to their ancestral island.

Photo Credit to Zoombinis Logical Journey on Amazon

Summary:

This chapter is all about how to implement technology-based software into the curriculum for skill-based learning in the classroom. Educational games and skill-based software is a very helpful source in the classroom because of the ways it can assess students and what they comprehend in class. The series zoombinis is a great example there is a series for each subject field and the example they share with us is the critical thinking and problem solving game. You have your own character and are going through obstacles based on a trial and error process.  Web-based, video, and computer games help to get the students actively involved in the lesson plan to learn new content and be excited. A game helps hide the work aspect of learning a new area.

Journal 6

Focus question:

How do teachers organize electronic resources to address curriculum frameworks and learning standards?

The good thing about technology is that it has everything easily placed at the end of a search bar! Teachers can easily use a computer to type in the Sunshine State Standards website to look up all of the different standards for each subject as well as each grade level. This simply tells them what is expected in the classroom with their curriculum. Teachers can also build what they call a “connector web” which is a separate way for teachers to look up standards and relay them back to the classroom lesson plans. All the standards are easily accessible for students, parents, and teachers and are helpful to understand and know the basics.

Tech tool:

6.2 Social Bookmarking

Just recently, from this class, I have learned so much about different sites that specialize in book marking your most visited pages on the web. They are a bunch you may chose from that all hold about the same standards. My favorite that I have been using for weeks now is www.Symabloo.com. It is now the homepage on my laptop, which creates such a great convenience for me. Symbaloo holds all of my bookmarked pages that I use everyday. You can set up this site using little tiles across the screen that with one click of your mouse it brings you to the desired page. It is such a helpful tool and is time efficient and creates traveling through browsers a lot easier.

Summary:

Chapter six is based on expressing the convenience the web and technology have supplied with lesson plans, activities, standards, and how to reach beyond barriers. The Internet is such a great to tool for teachers, students, and parents in and out of school. There are activities on different school pages or web pages in general, that children can log into and have lessons with in games to keep them hands on in the material. This chapter expresses that technology has created and abundant about of short cuts to be more time efficient to teachers and students. There are pages created for you to link all of your most visited sites to so you may travel to your destination on the web with out typing a single word, but with just one click of a button. There are tools the Internet can provide to help dismiss and difficulties or barriers teachers and ELL students may have. The Internet is a great tool to simplify things in the classroom, out of the classroom, and in everyday life!