Lesson 8

Netiquette

I feel like everything on this site is common sense, but a lot of the time common sense goes out the window when people sit down at a computer. I think some people think that the screen is a force field that protects them from any consequences they should face. I like the golden rule of Netiquette, “Remember the Human.” I think it is important to always remember this because it is easy to say negative things about people when you don’t have to look them in the eye. We discussed this very thing at school today and how important it is to communicate respectfully and thoughtfully when emailing colleges and parents.

Viruses

I don’t think a lot about viruses because I have a Mac, and at school I trust that our school technology people protect our computers with virus protection. I usually try and protect myself by not opening or clicking on things that look suspicious. If I don’t know who sent me and email I delete it and if it looks like spam I delete it. I think this is really important on social media sites because they are full of scams that end up hacking your account and sending messages to everyone. Better safe than sorry, so no clicking on those quizzes, and other advertisements.  When I think about it I wonder why people feel the need to create viruses, it doesn’t do anything for the creator unless they are hacking into a particular computer, and for everyone else it just causes a huge headache.

Security

Our computers at school have virus protection on them and I trust that it works and is up to date. I think where our security problems come into play at school is related to passwords. Students’ accounts have been hacked by other students by simply stealing their password and erasing their info within a program or stealing their “coins” they earned. Each student has a log-in for the computer but due to lost time on the lab because of students forgetting their usernames and or passwords we keep them logged on a general name. I am not sure if this is an avenue for problems but it works well for us in a time constraint.

For my teacher computer I am more afraid of confidential information getting out then my computer getting a virus. We discussed to day at school that we should completely log out of our email instead of minimizing it. I minimize mine all the time and this is a problem because anyone could come into my room and pull it up. I had an issue last year where I would be inputting grades and go to use the smart board and the grades would be projected on the screen because the source button had not been switched over. This problem should be solved this upcoming year because my teacher computer will not be hooked up to the smart board. Protecting information on my computer is more of a concern for me than viruses.

Lesson 7

Simulations

This was a very interesting interview. I love the idea of simulation because I think it helps the student create a personal connection with their learning that will help them remember the information later in life. I have used simulation in my economics unit to show the benefits of an assembly line. I created paper burgers, buns, lettuce, meat, ketchup, mustard, and cheese. I then had one student try and make as many as they can in a minute then I organize the materials and create and assembly line and see how many a group of students can make in the same amount of time. This shows them the affects of the assembly line and it involves them in their learning. Involving them creates a memory that will stay with them longer than using a textbook or handout.

Video Games

I agreed with what this article had to say about video games in education. I think there is a time and place fore everything and there is a place in education for video games if used correctly. They mentioned in the article how violent video games where the player is the killer can have negative affects on the gamer. However, there are many games out there that can teach students some valuable information. They can learn about stocks, how to manage a businesses, and see how towns and villages were overthrown. I think video games can be used in the classroom but they need to be throughout and their needs to be some follow up on what they learned by playing.

Web 2.0

I used Prezi in my Social Studies class last year. Students were able to present information on a certain region of the US and describe the Native American tribes that lived in that area. They had to include the crops they grew and the animals they hunted. They had to discuss the connection between their housing, clothing, and food in relation to their location in the US. They did this by creating a presentation on Prezi.

It was new software for me so I was unaware of its capabilities and how it all worked. Since I didn’t know the software very well I think that hindered their abilities in using it to its full potential. In the future I want to become more familiar with Prezi and create my own presentation that shows the students how Prezi works, make a Prezi about Prezi. Once they are able to see the tool in action and understand its features, I think it will be easier for them to manipulate the tool to get the full impact Prezi has to offer. Students today are pretty savvy with technology, so if I could provide some guidance in how the basics work I have no doubt they will be able to take it and run with it to make their own creations.  

Technology Exploration Assignment Form

19a. http://www.delicious.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Delicious is a neat site that helps keep track of all the cool websites you encounter. It allows you to install a button on your “bookmarks” tab so you can add sites to your Delicious profile. This is a nice feature because they don’t fill up your bookmarks and are kept in an organized format on your Delicious page. Your profile page on Delicious resembles a social media site. You can post links to your page and follow other people to view their links. It is a different approach, but handy.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  I could use this website for my personal use in saving sites for work. There are so many websites out there and this would be a great place where I could store all my school related sites. I think it would be great for students to use when doing research. They could easily save their resource sites and browse their classmates’ Delicious pages to see what resources they found. It would be a new way for kids to collaborate with the teacher and with their classmates.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? I would share this with my fellow teachers because we all do so much online and use so many online resources. It would be a great way for us to collaborate without having to verbally get together and share what we found. It might be something to discuss at an upcoming faculty meeting. I could post everything I have found in this class in these Technology Explorations!

b. http://www.historypin.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Once again there is another cool site that I didn’t know existed. This site has a catalogue of historical pictures. They are categorized by events, topics and location. I recently started following something similar on Twitter that is History through Pictures and all it does is post interesting pictures throughout history. This site reminds me of that account. The website has made collections of photos that you can browse through and has a “Tours and Collection” link where you can explore history though their photographic tours.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  I think this site would be terrific for a Social Studies class. Students could get on and use it as a resource and explore different locations they are studying or a specific topic. I also think it would be great to use to take kids on “virtual” tours of important events in history. We talked earlier in class how images can be powerful in the classroom and this site holds a lot of powerful images.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? I would recommend this site to my fellow teachers because I think they could use it for a wide variety of subjects. They could get a lot out of it in a Social Studies class, but it could also be used for writing prompts. I think it is also great for personal browsing.  It is very interesting and I think pictures say 1,000 words.

 c. http://www.diigo.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Diigo reminds me of Delicious in that it records website that you find that are useful to a cloud so you can access them anywhere and share them with people. What is different about Diigo is that it incorporates elements similar to Jing because you can take screen shots and highlight important parts of the text. It is an organizational tool for information.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  Any student who has to read information on the web could use this tool. I think it is helpful in this area because of the highlighting and screenshot options. I know when I read on the computer I lose my reading spot a lot. If I have to read a lot I usually print it off so I can highlight and take notes, but with those options on this site it make it easy and more convenient.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? I might recommend this site over Delicious because I could look at a recommended resource and see what they highlighted. It would help me decipher why they liked the webpage instead of exploring it with little information. It would allow for teachers to share and collaborate what they find and highlight and post stickies to their favorite parts.

d. http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/calculator/ 

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  This is a great resource that is very simple to use. It is a talking calculator that speaks whenever you hit a button. It will say “eight” if you input 8 and “eight hundred forty two” if you input 842. It also says, “divided by” and “multiplied by.” It speaks as if a teacher was saying it allowed to their class.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  This would be great for my fourth graders when learning how to say big numbers. They have trouble with place value early in the year and this would be a great way to help them read large numbers. It would also be great to help them when they divide. They get confused on what numbers to put in the calculator first in a lot of the mathematical operations and since it speaks the numbers and operations it could clarify for them if they were doing it correctly.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? I would recommend this to my fellow teachers because I think any grade level could get some use out of it. I think the primary grades would benefit the most from it because it could help student identify numbers and understand mathematical operations and how they are related when said allowed.

e.  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Big-Simple-Talking-Calculator.shtml

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  This calculator also speaks and has more options that the PBS calculator. It is not as fun to look at, but it does have more features. I like the PBS calculator better because it didn’t require a download. It popped up immediately and was user friendly.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  This calculator would be more popular with older grades because of its capabilities. I think it would help older students who have a math learning disability because it has the voice option. It could possibly help ELL students in using a talking calculator because the screen text can appear in a foreign language, but the numbers are spoken in English.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? I would recommend this to the 5th grade teachers because of the more advanced options on the calculator. I think I would be more inclined to share the PBS calc because it is easier to access and appeals to the majority of teachers in my building. I didn’t like how this calc required a download to be accessible.

20a. Math wiki example: http://2write4math.pbwiki.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. This website is a math Wiki for teachers. It has a variety of resources that are categorized by a navigation sidebar. It has resources from elementary to high school, which include lesson plans, standards and best practices. Learning about wikis it is cool to see one meant as a resource for teachers instead of a tool for students.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  I would use this source in school as a teaching tool. I could navigate the site to find ideas for my math lessons and learn a variety of things from how to use journal writing in math to how to edit a wiki. A good tool for teachers.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Even though this is a good tool for teachers I would not recommend it. I didn’t find a lot of information worth using and some of the links didn’t lead anywhere. I love the idea of a teacher wiki, but I wish it contained more useful information.

b. PicLits http://www.piclits.com

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  PicLit is a site that contains a wide variety of pictures that you can drag words to or type your own and place them on the picture. It is basically a site where you can create a word collage that is inspired by cool photography. The website has a gallery of premade collages to view and an area to help with your writing skills. It is a fun and creative site that can be used for personal or school related projects.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting I think this site would be a great writing prompt website. You could pull up a picture and have kids write down their thoughts whether it is a list of words or an entire story. After the students gain some experience with the site they can use it to create an actual PicLit. They would enjoy using the site and the built up anticipation of using paper and pencil will get them excited and ready to write.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? This site is a neat site for teachers to know about because it could be used in a variety of ways. Our focus this year is on writing and this site would be a great way to get students to want to write. I think the amazing photos will intrigue students and will give them the desire to produce writing to go with the photos.

Lesson 6

BLOG 6

WebQuest is a new term for me and it has opened up this new world. When reading over this weeks reading it describes WebQuests for being an inquiry based learning method that fosters high order thinking. When reading about what a WebQuest is, it is a little intimidating, but when I looked through examples on the WbQuest Garden site, it makes complete sense. I came across a lot of WebQuests that I could use in my classroom and it also provided ideas for myself, which was even better. Bernie Dodge definitely came up with a great idea to enhance classrooms around the world.

Fraction Fun!

http://questgarden.com/143/06/6/120416112414/index.htm

I love this WebQuest! This would be so much fun for my math students. It would provide a great review and integrates so many standards. I also like it because they review on their own. I think reviewing on their own would help them study and further their understanding on fractions, compared to me reviewing concepts at the front of the room. The teacher who made the WebQuest has a laptop for every kid. This could pose a problem if technology was not accessible, however we have a 5 iPads for our rooms so I could adapt it to work for 5 iPads or borrow other teachers for this review. I thought her recipe idea was very creative and a great way for students to apply their fraction skills. The WebQuest provides extra motivation for students because it is related to food, always a plus! J I also loved the way she wrote her task, in a letter format. I think it personalized it to her class and made it seem that the kids were on a mission for tasty treats. The only thing I found as a weakness for me, was the time frame. She said it would take a week and I don’t know if I have entire week to review fractions, but I am going to try and make it work. I think this would be very beneficial. Love it!

My WebQuest - http://questgarden.com/161/59/0/130801155313/

My WebQuest was made to help students work through their business proposal for their Economics Entrepreneur Fair. In the past students think of a good or service to sell at the E-Fair and fill out the necessary paperwork to begin making their product. After we finish the fair some realize that they were not very profitable due to many different factors. This WebQuest is to help prevent those mistakes, by creating a “practice” proposal. If their “practice” proposal works out, then they may use it for their actual proposal, however if it fails they will know they must tweak it before fully committing for the fair. While creating a proposal is the ultimate task of the WebQuest they also review economic concepts that are important to their decision-making. This WebQuest was designed as an at home WebQuest so parents could work through it with them. the purpose of this is to help the parents understand what is being asked of their student for the E-Fair. Getting the parents involved can help with the students understanding as well as their own understanding of what the E-Fair is all about.

Challenges

I initially went with another idea for my WebQuest. It was going to introduce students to what a WebQuest was by having them perform tasks around their school website. Once I got half way through and re-looked at our weekly reading I felt that my WebQuest was not up to par. It was lacking standards and more importantly, higher-order thinking. So I got to thinking. I saw plenty of math examples and that was my first instinct, since it is my favorite subject. However I wanted to think outside my box and create something I could use in this next school year. So I decided on Economics. I thought I had a great idea and that changed quickly once I started looking for resources. There are plenty out there, but there are few that are meant to be read by 4^th graders. I would say that was my biggest challenge, finding resources. I thought I might change it to an Opinion Piece WebQuest, but I decided to stick with my Economics plan. I was at school this week and talked to my fellow team teachers, they gave me ideas of what I should focus on and I came back to the computer ready to make it work. I wouldn’t say it is perfect by any means, but I think it will helps students understand what  they are expected to do and prepare them for what is ahead. I’ll try it out this year and tweak it as needed. When all of the resources said making a WebQuest was time consuming, they weren’t kidding.