Hello students! Welcome to my Blog! I created this blog for a class that I took this summer that allowed me to learn a lot about technology, much of which we will be using in class this year. I hope you enjoy the blogging experience.
Below are three questions that I would like you to respond to after you have completed all the tasks on our Researching the Rainforest Webquest. I hope you enjoyed our first class Webquest experience!
Question 1: What was your most favorite part about your webquesting experience?
Question 2: What was the most challenging task you ran into when completing the webquest?
Question 3: What would you change for next time? Overall, did you learn valuable information and have fun?
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Final Blog for ED 620 - Reflection
As the summer winds down, so does this course. Although I am just beginning to fulfill the requirements of my Master's Degree in Educational Technology and ITS Certification, I must say that I feel this course has certainly exceeded my expectations. I truly feel that learning the information I did regarding the Invisible Web, Wikis, Internet Scavenger Hunts, Blogs, Webquests, RSS Feeds, Open Source Applications, and Podcasts will prove to beneficial to my technological world either personally or professionally! Not only was I able to explore such a variety of evolving technology, I was also able to apply it and test my skills to create class projects.
With regard to my professional life, I feel that I will be able to communicate with fellow educators to share information using blogs. RSS Feeds are an excellent way for educators to stay up to date with the latest in education, in a less time consuming fashion. As for my students, I think that they will certainly enjoy integrating technology into our lessons by using Internet Scavenger Hunts or Webquests. I would also like to see my students reflect on their technology experiences in a class blog. Podcasts seem to be great ways to teach and/or reinforce skills already taught. I found so many useful Open Sources that I also plan to use to reinforce skills. Finally, for my more advanced students, I would like to explain to them what a wiki is prior to completing a research paper. Afterwards, I hope to see those students be able to add information to Wikipedia based on their research!
Thanks to everyone who has shared information with me and mostly to John for all you have taught me throughout this course (and we didn't even need a textbook--THANK YOU!)! Take care everyone and I hope to interact with you in other courses!
With regard to my professional life, I feel that I will be able to communicate with fellow educators to share information using blogs. RSS Feeds are an excellent way for educators to stay up to date with the latest in education, in a less time consuming fashion. As for my students, I think that they will certainly enjoy integrating technology into our lessons by using Internet Scavenger Hunts or Webquests. I would also like to see my students reflect on their technology experiences in a class blog. Podcasts seem to be great ways to teach and/or reinforce skills already taught. I found so many useful Open Sources that I also plan to use to reinforce skills. Finally, for my more advanced students, I would like to explain to them what a wiki is prior to completing a research paper. Afterwards, I hope to see those students be able to add information to Wikipedia based on their research!
Thanks to everyone who has shared information with me and mostly to John for all you have taught me throughout this course (and we didn't even need a textbook--THANK YOU!)! Take care everyone and I hope to interact with you in other courses!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Blogging, Blogging, and More Blogging...
This week's blogging has been very interesting! As more and more of my classmates are posting their thoughts and ways to integrate technology, I am finding great ideas for my classroom. Therefore, blogging is proving to be an excellent way to share classroom experiences, classroom management ideas, bulletin boards, and ways to integrate technology into the classroom! One of my classmates suggested that after students complete an Internet Scavenger Hunt or WebQuest, they should then create a posting on a teacher-created blog to share their experience, reflect on the experience, and provide suggestions for future students. This would be an excellent way for students to communicate their ideas that they do not always have the opportunity to express during class time due to time constraints. It also allows students to practice writing and reflecting, which are higher order thinking skills.
I would like to use Internet Scavenger Hunts and WebQuests in my classroom during our "Fun Fridays". This is a time when I complete progress monitoring for my students, which allows students time for interactive group work, thus making it a perfect time to integrate technology. I think that blogs would be great ways for students to interact with one another and post ideas for their classmates to read and respond. Blogs would also be great places for students to post any questions or difficulties they had completing an assignment.
Blogs are not only great for educators to share information, but students as well! Keep on blogging!
I would like to use Internet Scavenger Hunts and WebQuests in my classroom during our "Fun Fridays". This is a time when I complete progress monitoring for my students, which allows students time for interactive group work, thus making it a perfect time to integrate technology. I think that blogs would be great ways for students to interact with one another and post ideas for their classmates to read and respond. Blogs would also be great places for students to post any questions or difficulties they had completing an assignment.
Blogs are not only great for educators to share information, but students as well! Keep on blogging!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Week 3 Blog Post
Well as we conclude week 3 of class and our second week of blogging, one question I have is how we find the time to incorporate all of these technological enhancements to our classrooms. Does anyone have any suggestions? While I have found blogging to be a useful tool for teachers, parents, and students, it also requires time to read through postings and comments. I forsee using it in my classroom on a monthly basis to write up an overview of the material covered in class and a way to post comments regarding this material.
As we are learning how to create Internet Scavenger Hunts and collaborating, I am realizing how flexible everyone must be to complete an assignment because everyone's schedules are so different. It definitely takes time, commitment, and good communication to effectively collaborate on a group project. In school, I would definitely have to give my students class time to complete the Internet Scavenger Hunts because I can't assume that they have access to the internet at home. If you are using Internet Scavenger Hunts in your classroom, how have they assisted you? What are the benefits and the down falls?
As we are learning how to create Internet Scavenger Hunts and collaborating, I am realizing how flexible everyone must be to complete an assignment because everyone's schedules are so different. It definitely takes time, commitment, and good communication to effectively collaborate on a group project. In school, I would definitely have to give my students class time to complete the Internet Scavenger Hunts because I can't assume that they have access to the internet at home. If you are using Internet Scavenger Hunts in your classroom, how have they assisted you? What are the benefits and the down falls?
Monday, July 16, 2007
Math and Language Arts Educational Blog
Welcome to my Educational Blog! I am a learning support teacher at Latrobe Elementary School in Southwestern Pennsylvania. This blog has been created for use in my language arts and math learning support classrooms. I will use this Blog to facilitate discussions between students, teachers, administrators, and parents. I am a first-time blogger so please feel free to share any comments or suggestions that you have discovered while blogging. I am interested in identifying the usefulness of blogging and ways to incorporate it into my classes. The blogs that I have had a chance to view online seem to provide teachers with opportunities to share bulletin boards, classroom organization strategies, lesson plans, activities, and classroom management skills. Please feel free to share your ideas or any interesting blogs with me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
