Post 6

As a teacher I do not see myself using blogs and twitter to teach my students, since I want to teach younger grades such as Kindergarten. If I were to teach or interact with say high school students though I could definitely see myself incorporating twitter into daily learning. During high school and now in college some of my teachers used twitter as a way to communicate and share helpful information or resources for that specific class. As a teacher I would use blogs and twitter for similar reasons. I would follow education blogs or people on twitter to help further my resources or information on new teaching techniques. I would allow my student’s parents to follow me if they wanted to see what I was incorporating into their children’s lessons. I would collaborate and follow other teachers to get an insight on what they are teaching and maybe even share lesson plans. On twitter I would follow education news to see what is happening in the education field and to be able to know what is going on.

I think helping students to realize at an early age what a good resource is from the internet is extremely important. As a teacher I would want my students to be educated on the types of resources they can use and also that they are able to spot a bad resource on the internet. In order to help them be able to do this I would incorporate assignments into my lesson plan that work with computers and research on the internet. I would help the students be able to identify what a good source is and how to use it for papers and homework. I could show them website evaluation forms that they could use while searching on the internet. I would expect the parents of my students to work with their children on finding good sources on the internet. I could send home homework that the parents can help the student with that requires the student to find several reliable resources and then explain why they are reliable. I think it is important for students to be able to do this so that when they get older they can find reliable sources and be able to cite them for research. It will also help with plagiarism because they can learn at an early age how to paraphrase and cite sources.

The Web Hunt assignment was very helpful because it taught me how to find proper websites to use for teaching or my own benefit. It required me to find the best source for each question and to evaluate why that was the best source. I also learned a lot on how to search something in google so that you can get the most relevant source. I learned many new search strategies that I can use for the future when I need the most reliable source. I liked the new search skills that I learned with this assignment. I did not like how broad the answers could be on the assignment. I feel like for each question there were several websites that could work and it was hard to find the one that I thought would be correct. I also feel like it was hard to justify why that website was chosen and why I chose the search strategy that I did. Next time I would use more search strategies rather than just googling the entire question. I feel like I will definitely use the search strategies in the future to find the most relevant websites. I will use this information when I am searching for lesson plans or information while I am teaching.

Comments:

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https://masternewknowledgedaily.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/module-6/#respond

Below is a video from YouTube that shows other helpful strategies to use while searching on Google.

Post 5

Web based resources can enhance student learning in a number of ways. Students can participate in interactive learning materials online and many materials for lesson plans can come from online sources. Graphs and converters can be found online to help students learn different things visually. There can be 3D models or virtual tours and sites that can be used. As a teacher, we can collaborate with other teachers on resources they use in the classroom. One interesting resource that I have heard about is being used when recess has to be indoors because of weather. Students are taken on a safari adventure in the classroom as they watch an interactive video that teaches them about different places and also gets them moving. The one video I saw was in a desert and the students had to jump left and right and other ways to get around obstacles. They also learned interesting facts about the desert. This is a great way to get students moving and also learning at the same time.

I think using the internet for research is fine when it is limited. Many people do not know how to accurately search for proper research sources on the internet and instead stick to googling sources that might not be as helpful as scholarly ones. I think research done through articles and books is the best because it is usually research and experiments that are many years in the making. It is hard to say over the internet what is a reliable source or not. I would let my students use the internet for research but would challenge them to get more sources and information from non-online sources. I think it is useful for small searches for both students and teachers. For students, it would be okay for a small assignment or project. For teachers, it would be okay for mostly anything from blogs to lesson plans. The only time I feel it is not useful is for a lengthy research project in which the student needs a lot of resources.

I have used the internet for basically all of my searches in the past. It is only for the lengthy projects or papers that I actually am required to get out a book or article. I have used internet based resources for things like creating graphs to converting units. I use it for quick searches daily. In the past I have had to create websites so I had to find websites that would help me with that.  I learned new things in the podcast and required readings like different ways to search for things in order to get the most relevant information.

This week I learned different ways to search in Google in order to get the best information. I really liked the PowerPoint that explained all of the different things to add to your search in Google in order to find the information you are looking for. I liked the Web Hunt project but I feel like some of the things it was asking was too broad and I was unable to choose the link that I thought would best fit the question. We also did a Skill Check using Inspiration. I liked how we used images off of Google instead of the animated ones provided. Next time I would spend more time on the Web Hunt assignment trying to find the best sites and information. I could use what I used from the Web Hunt assignment to narrow my searches in the future when I am looking for information regarding educational materials.

Comments:

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Post 4

The website I have chosen can be accessed here. I have a few critiques for this website, even though it is made by children. The main header picture is fuzzy and hard to see. The main title of “Talumba” is not centered and neither is the picture located on the left. The icons on the top to locate around the page are also fuzzy and spread out. There is a hyperlink that does not work in the second paragraph. Visual tools can support student learning by enabling students to learn different visual techniques for things involving technology. Visual tools help students to explore their creativity and use technology to accomplish that.

I do think open content and open source are very important for educators. It enables a teacher to save time and collaborate with other teachers on ideas and plans. Open content is important because it is close to copyright and tells teachers what they can and cannot take from the internet. This is important in any case so that teachers are using the content they find in a proper way. Open source is important if people want to use software on their own and edit their own material. I think it is important to have this readily available to teachers so that they can take advantages of software that is usually free. It is also good that it is available to all because students can use it as well for projects or homework since they could download it onto their own computer. I would use open content and open source materials. I think it is a great way to learn from others and even revise or edit one’s own findings. I would also contribute to it by sharing my own ideas. I do not agree with open education because I think that it is unfair to the students who are paying for the course.

From the assignment this week I learned how to create a concept map or idea map. I think it is important to know this skill since that is a tool that could be used widely in teaching. I also enjoyed being able to use Inspiration since it is new software to me. I liked the simplicity of it, and I feel like it was pretty easy to navigate. I did not like trying to make arrows on it, since I could not figure out how to. I also did not like having to save and export it to Microsoft Word. I found it difficult to keep the hyperlink in place. I think I could have improved the way I connected the different nodes on my map. I would use this to explain a new method or steps to the students.

Below are my concept maps and these are the blogs I commented on for this week:

https://sammgronau.wordpress.com/

https://tlc14c.wordpress.com/

         

Post 3

I have had limited use of Microsoft Word as a student. I usually just use it to write papers or design a flyer real quick. I never knew about half of the things we’ve used so far. I had known about word art and clip art but I had rarely used it. I was very excited to see that we learned how to use Mail Merge because how the teachers put each of our names into a letter was always a mystery to me. When I was younger I had always seen my teachers use Microsoft Word the way that we are using it now. Some teachers were more advanced than others but they all knew the basics like page border, shapes and clip art. As I got older, Microsoft Word was just used to type up syllabi’s or a quick letter to the students. The flare and use of all of the features were gone.

As a student, a huge emphasis was put on plagiarism and cheating, but never on copyright. We never actually learned what copyright and fair use had to do with learning, we just assumed it was something that had to deal with copying music or books from other people. After reading the guidelines on what is legal or not, I definitely can understand now why teachers had done certain things. I had never known the intensity of the rules until now. As a teacher, I would make myself familiar with those rules and make sure to follow them any time I would want to use something from print or the internet. I would also educate my students about the importance of copyright and fair use since I was never told about it. I think it is important for them to learn now so that they do not have to find out the hard way later on.

I learned numerous new things by making the newsletter this week. I learned how to make columns which I had never known how to do. I also learned how to create a form or permission slip. I was able to get a refresher on page borders and word art. I also learned that you can put a page border on one page but not the next one. I really enjoyed the Mail Merge feature, as I stated earlier. I feel like that is a skill I could definitely use a lot during my career. I did not like trying to create the heading during the Skill Check. That was the most difficult thing for me because the clip art would not stay in the same line as the word art. I also had trouble with certain text box’s that decided to just move wherever they wanted. For next time I think I would spend more time on the assignment just because I noticed little mistakes afterwards. I feel like for the grade I want to teach, these skills will be very helpful with colorful newsletters and forms.

Comments:

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