525 Wk 3

Wow! Week three already! Not good that means summer is half over. I had never used or heard of bubble.us before this week. I was really impressed with its ease of use. I was able to just click and type to make a brainstorming web. This tool would be very useful for brainstorming ideas in the classroom as I cannot draw or write very well. This also would be easier than adding a web to a power point presentation. Education oasis also provided a ton of useful templates for educators. I could have used any of them in the classroom and it would be much easier and faster than creating my own and re-inventing the wheel. Exploratree also had a ton of thinking maps and organizers that could be used in the classroom. These maps could be shared with students so that they could choose the organizer that works best for them. With Exploratree students could organize thoughts and ideas with graphics that they choose versus just using a thinking map that I provide. The students would have more ownership in the learning process. I think all of these learning tools explored this week can be very useful to the learning process, some of these tools I can put to use right away in the classroom and others will have to be put away for another day!

525 Wk 2 Rubric V quizstar

If you google rubric makers, you can find some tools to make rubrics online. In the past I have used one or two different rubric makers and they are a life saver. When I was in college I made my rubrics on word and wasted all kinds of time formatting and spacing. Tools like rubristar make life a lot easier. With drop down menus and prompts you are able to create whatever type of rubric you need. Even for a rare discipline like mine, I am able to adapt many of the templates to meet my needs. With quizstar, you can create online quizes which provide automatic feedback. No more paper quizes that take so much time to create, copy, correct, and handback. With quizstar you can create online quizes for students and provide immediate feedback. This is a tool that I could use in my classroom. I currently operate with old paper quizes, but this could be a useful tool in the future. With the graphics and design possibilities, students may even be more successful. The only drawback to this tool currently is that I don't teach in a computer lab and not all of my students have internet access. If I used this tool, students would have to complete these assessments on their own time. While quizstar does'nt fit perfectly into my current classes, it may be useful in the future and I will surely give it a try.

525 wk 1

This course sounds like what I signed up for. What I am looking for in this program is ways to enhance my lessons with technology. The article on principles of teaching and learning covered a lot of stuff that we all learned in college. I do like to review that stuff because I forget it. The journal article was a bit heavy but it was important and it made sense. I agree that a lesson can not be based on technology. Technology should be used along with a well planed lesson in order to increase student interest and success. A perfect example is a power point presentation. If a power point is designed well, the lesson will be full of content, but more interactive with the power point and a follow along guide. This is much better than just having the teacher stand up front and talk or worse yet, having the students hand write notes. Technology can be a great tool when used in conjunction with a great lesson.

520 wk 4

This week has a number of interesting topics. Child internet safety is something that is important to me. I do not have kids but if I did I would be very cautious of when they were online and what they were doing. There is a lot of dangers out there and we need to be vigilant of our childrens internet usage. (to catch a predator is a scary show!) Copyright laws are also interesting. I never used to really even be aware of this topic until downloading music became an option and then illegal. With the ease of file sharing and the amount of good information on the internet, teachers must be careful not to infringe copyright laws even in the name of education. It is important for us to educate our students on copyright laws and also set an example by following them!

520 wk 3

Well I found some great stuff this week. My blog was flagged for spam and I almost lost this account. I don't know how but that almost happened. The part of this week I enjoyed the most was the 280slides review. This tool is great! I used empressr before and it did not do what I wanted, but 280slides did. I could actually upload a ppt and make it available online. This means I can work with my familiar power point and then share it through 280slides. Also I enjoyed looking at google for educators. There is not much there for a person that teaches automechanics and collision repair but I still found it useful. I have enjoyed working with these different tools and I hope that I can keep track of them all. If I am able to incorporate these things into my teaching and my life I will be much more effective and efficient!

520 wk 2

Well summer is coming and I am excited! I always seem happier when the weather gets nice. So far I have enjoyed this class and I have appreciated the assignments. I enjoyed the internet based learning assignment because I found a lot of great articles in support of it. I think that what we are doing in this program is very useful for our profession. I want to be a leader in my school and a good example of a technology literate teacher. These articles would be good ammo for a budget, faculty, or school board meeting in order to support educational technology. I have always been in support of using the internet for teaching and I go as far as using youtube in many of my classes to show videos and google images for pictures. I could not be as effective or interesting without the support of technology. Not to mention all of the good ideas I get from the web. I was not all that suprised to also find articles about people and teachers that do not support educational technology and do not use any either. I hope to change the minds of those people in my school and keep growing in my "techKnowledgeY"

520 wk 1

This course has started off pretty well. I missed most of the first class because I was attending an awards dinner with my students. I did catch the end and was able to get a pretty good picture of the assignments for this week. The focus on evaluating internet resources is a great activity. Using the forms provided in the wiki and creating my own really allowed me some time to think about how I evaluate web information. These tools will be very useful when assigning course work that students can use the internet as a resource. Many people may not be aware when they are doing internet research that some sites have a bias or an agenda that skews the information they provide. These types of influences can prevent students from doing effective internet research. It is the same as when we used books and magazines as our only sources. If I was writing a paper on gun control, the NRA would definitely have something to say, and their information may be valid, but you can bet that it will have a pro-gun slant. Being able to determine the validity of the source is important no matter what type of media you are using.