TIE 542 Final Reflections

I am extremely proud of the work that I have done in this class. The use of Dreamweaver was a totally new piece of learning for me. for someone who would like to be a web designer, I think CS4 is a great piece of software. It is obvious that there are no limits to the possibilities of what can be done within the software if you are somewhat familiar with HTML code. A large amount of time was put in learning the software in order to fulfill the requirements of the class,I tried to create a site that would not just fulfill the requirements, but be functional and useful for me in my professional life. I think I have accomplished that. I don't think that I have a real use for such an expensive piece of software because I don't foresee any website creation outside of web-based WYSIWYGs. I for one like Weebly. It is easy to use, and free, and it has all of the functionality that I truly need in a website.

Research and Selection Web-based Material

As a teacher, choosing web-based material that is appropriate for use with your students can be a daunting task. Don't even mention the apprehension that teachers feel when sending students to research controversial topics that are appropriate and essential to the learning of teens and young adults. The best thing that you can do as a teacher is to do research yourself so that you are familiar with what student will encounter when they venture out. Teach them how to use good searching techniques using phrasing or Boolean Logic. See this website for more information.
Another way to scaffold for students so that they don't spend wasted time researching is to create a list of web resources for your students from which to jump-off. This list can be created on a classroom website, or a free internet portal such as Portaportal, and My Bookmarks Online. You could also create a Wiki that student could use a jump-off for research. One that is free and easy is PBWorks.
Another issue that teachers encounter is not having access to the same resources at home and at school. If you plan to use web-based resource with your students, be sure to try it out at school, on the computer that you will use for the lesson. If you don't you could run into the problems of being blocked by the school firewall, or not having the software needed to run the web resource. The most important thing that a teacher can do is preview, preview, preview before using Internet resources with your students. Preparing for technology integration increases the likelihood of successful implementation.

Learning Math with Tabula Digita

This past school year, Chicago Public Schools used technology integration to support stuggling students in their AIM High After School program. Two of the programs they used were DimensionM from Tabula Digita and Cognitive Tutor from Carnegie Learning. One program impressed me because of it's similarity to the kinds of video games that are so popular with kids today. DimensionM is a 3-D, web-based, first-person video game that teaches pre-algebra and algebra skills to students while they problem solve through missions in an alternate world. the games can be played individually or in multi-player format. Students are scored only by correctly answering math questions that they encounter throughout their missions. The website also sponsors competitions and they have a MegaBowl at the them of the school year. The program does come with teacher guides and curriculum objectives. Student progress can also be tracked by the teacher. Though there was a huge learning curve for many teachers, the program is not for teachers, it's for students. It requires the student to engage in learning in a way that is interesting and entertaining at the same time. The program is for purchase at http://www.dimensionm.com/.

Assessing Tech Integration Projects

As we move forward in teaching students to work with technology and use technology as a platform for building project-based learning, we need to always be focused on assessment. How do we evaluate students in this new arena? You don't have to do it alone. Intel has created a library of assessment tools from checklists to wikis for evaluating critical thinking skills, projects and so forth. The assessing projects workspace is free to use with sign-up. When you sign-up, you are able to create a personal library from the resources found in the database. All resources are available to export and are edit as needed. The workspace can be found at http://educate.intel.com/en/assessingprojects/. There is a demo that you can try before signing up.

What a WebQuest!

A WebQuest is a student-centered, project-based, inquiry-related, web-based activity that usually includes critical thinking, creativity, questioning and cooperative learning. A good webquest is hard to find, because many of them are lacking a few or many of the aforementioned components. Well, in my search, I have found one that I feel is chocked full of everything needed to make it a great project for the upper elementary or high school classroom. The webquest entitled "The Perfect Society" can be found at http://www.nelliemuller.com/Theperfectsociety.student.htm. The webquest is created as a curriculum expansion of the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry. The students are charged with the task of investigating and reporting back to the elders, why Jonas chose to leave the community. Students work in groups, write interview questions and reports, make observations, create and deliver a presentation of their findings.

The task and process are clearly stated in a way that is easy for students to follow. The teacher has attached various resources for students to use in order to scaffold the learning process and differentiate instruction. The teacher also supplies students with the rubrics that will be used for grading of various activities/artifacts. The teacher also includes a PowerPoint presentation to introduce the project.

This particular webquest was located via the webquest.org site. This site gives you the ability to search for webquests by subject area and title keywords.

The Value of Internet Resources

I was recently thinking about how fortunate students are today to have the Internet and all that goes with it. I recall being in school and doing research papers and projects. I had to go to the library and spend hours looking for resources. We used a card catalogue to locate the literature, then we had to pray that it wasn't already checked out. Inevitably, it was, which meant that I had to get on the waiting list to pick it up when it was returned, if it was returned on time. Today, students can search encyclopedias, magazine indexes and read whole texts online. Yes, students may encounter information that is useless, nonfactual or dubious, but that was always the case. Everything found in a brick and mortar library is not of utmost value either depending on its use. So, we teach our students to decipher the information they encounter....Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. It happens to be part of those higher order thinking skills everyone is buzzing about.

There was a time when your loved ones went overseas for war or pleasure, and the only correspondence you could expect was a letter. Now, you can email daily to keep in contact. It used to be so expensive to make an international call. Now, it's free through the Internet with Skype, and you can even see the person you are talking to. How wonderful for teachers to be able to share their teaching with a classroom half way around the world. How about the ability to have class virtually from your bedroom. What a fabulous prospect for a student who is home bound or bedridden.

Moving beyond school, dare I even mention the advantages to a consummate shopper? Gone are the days of comparison shopping using your local newspaper ads. Now, you can compare the prices from stores you will never step foot in, some of which only sell products online. Imagine the advantage to families that live in rural or remote areas. the Internet brings stores to their front doors, and in turn saves them an enormous amount of time and money. Ecommerce happens to be my favorite Internet resource.

Here are some of my favorite ecommerce sites.
http://www.retailmenot.com/ coupons
http://www.vistaprint.com/ stationary
http://www.amazon.com/ online superstore
http://www.bookingbuddy.com/ airplane tickets

April is Poetry Month

April is my favorite month of the school year because I have the whole month to focus on a topic that I love to teach...poetry. Many people think that children dislike poetry. Often even the children themselves. In fact, children love poetry, because children love music. Songs are poetry set to music. It's lyric poetry. Here are a few things you can do. 1)Start off your unit by listening to a song students know and love. Stop the song just as they get into it, and watch them continue on without the background. 2) Allow them to take the lyrics to a song, and perform the song as spoken word. This can be tricky, because you want to be sure the lyrics are appropriate for school. 3) Allow the students to write raps to perform for the class. 3) So choral readings with rhyming books like Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom 5) Use Audacity(Win), or Garageband(Mac) to create sound recordings to convert to mp3. 6)Use Adobe Premiere to create videos to animate student poetry as they narrate. These videos can also be converted to play on almost any computer or mp3 player.

If you need a little more guidance to get you started, here are some sites I can recommend. If you know of some good sites for finding poetry or lessons, share them in a reply.

• Education World http://www.education-world.com/a_special/poetrymonth.shtml
• ReadWriteThink http://www.readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=478
• Poets.org http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41
• Teachnology http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/language_arts/poetry/
• Poem Hunter http://www.poemhunter.com/
• Poetry4Kids http://www.poetry4kids.com/

This is one of my favorites

Voki.com is a free online tool that allows you to create speaking avatars. Those avatars are stored online and can be shared in various ways. I like to use Voki to create announcements for my students when I am absent from school. I embed the Voki into my class site and the Substitute directs my students to go there. I would usually say hello, tell them why I was absent and that I had left assignments for them to complete with the Substitute. They always seemed to be nicer to the Substitute if they knew the information was coming from me.

Web What?

Web 2.0 is the second generation of web development. When the Web first began, at least for us regular folks, it was a one way street. You could go to a site and find out information based on what that website owner wanted to tell you. You didn't have a choice as to what you wanted. Now, with Web 2.0, you do. When you go to a site, you can ask for what you want. You can make comments, search databases, and make requests. You can even add your own content that others will see when they visit. You in essence become a co-creater. Check out this video on Web 2.0.



Interested in dabbling in a little Web 2.0 yourself? Well you probably already have, but here are a few things I highly recommend. If you have a Gmail account, you already have access to Google's extensive line of products. You can simply use your Gmail username and password to login. Create a blog at www.blogger.com, you're looking at one right now. Don't have an Office suite on your home computer, you don't need one, you can use Google Docs. Google offers online document creation for free that includes word processing, spreadsheets, forms and presentation software. You can even share and collaborate with others and Google saves it all for you online, so you have access to it from where ever there is an Internet connection. Are you into pictures? Well Google has a free software called Picasa 3. Picasa is a free downloadable picture editing software plus an online picture album that you can share with others if you choose. If none of what I have recommended interests you, feel free to search and find some applications you might like. Here are some links.

Google products
GO2WEB2.o Applications