Chapter 6 Journal

What are WebQuests and virtual field trips? WebQuests and virtual field trip are online tools designed to get the student more involved and interested in learning. WebQuests are designed by students, students make their inquiries and then teachers guide them. In a WebQuest, students navigate through a web resource to gather and learn information on a topic. Once they've learned about a topic, they will then assess what they find or prepare a presentation based on their findings. There are many sites and resources teacher can use in order to create a successful WebQuest. In comparison to WebQuest, virtual field trips work in a similar way but differ because these are designed to take a student on a field trip anywhere in the world without ever having to leave their schools. Multiple computers are required for virtual field trips because students can explore museums and historical places anywhere. Virtual field trips are still new therefore, a lot of research is still being done but student so far have shown higher reading comprehension skills in a recent study done.

Tech Tools 6.3 An interactive online field trip: The Cave of Chauvet-Point-d'Arc This tech tool is all about online field trips. I explored this website and it quite interesting. This site takes you right to the source while adding the interesting facts and history behind the cave paintings. It also enhances the site by showing some amazing pictures. I think this is a great idea for students. I even enjoyed browsing through the website as an adult.

The following virtual field trip was provided by YouTube user IntegratingHabitats 

Chapter 6 Summary Teaching with Educational Websites and Other Online Resources This chapter introduces online resources, book marking, social book marking, and information alerts used for organizing. It provides information for managing information electronically and gathering the information to make your lesson fun and interesting. It provides bookmarking tools and provides education on how to use them appropriately like on Portaportal. It also gives the information needed on how to use social book marking as well.

One thing I found interesting in this chapter was how to create your own standards connector. A standards connector is an effective response to your demands as an educator mandated by the state and local curriculum. It's a collection on web resources that facilitate teaching required topics and allows the user to manage and store information for their curriculum.

Next, it talks about WebQuest and virtual field trips which I explained in the above. Also, it provides information on educational websites as teaching resources and how to utilize them. Using educational websites interactively to engage a student is extremely important because you want to be able to keep your students interested and you want them to absorb the information your teaching as an educator. This chapter explains how to do this in an effective manner.

Finally, it show educators how to use technology transformation on their lesson plans. I love technology. Therefore, learning how to incorporate technology in my everyday life as a teacher is very useful. This chapter provided many useful ways for me to do so.

Chapter 5 Journal

What are search engines and how do they work? Search engines are software programs that use networks of computers to acquire and assess information about a topic from its databases. We often use search engines because we want to receive information about a specific topic on the internet. Search engines are brilliant, because by typing a single word or phrase you can receive millions of webpages regarding your topic within milliseconds. For example, there are sites that I utilize on a daily basis like Google and Bing. These sites allow you to search specific topics and often will populate frequently searched topics as you begin typing in what you're looking for. Search engines are also available for educational resources which provide more options for school-related topics and offer more scholarly resources.

This video was provided YouTube user socialmediadd

Tech Tool 5.1 Photo and Audio Resources on the Web Tech tool 5.1 demonstrates Flickr which is a photo managing and sharing tool on the web. Many educators use this locate and organize their photos. I've actually explored this site at the beginning of the semester and enjoyed it because not only can you put your own photos on there, you could use the photos that people have shared if you're looking for something specific. Tech Tool 5.1 also shows LibriVox which offers free audio recording of published books and other random material. I would definitely utilize this site for my students and myself. I could either use it in class reading or for students that have difficulty reading on their own.

Chapter 5 Summary Researching and Evaluating Internet Information Chapter 5 basically states how to make the internet a useful source by eliminating all the garbage. ICT Literacy means to be able to use digital information, communication tools, and networks appropriately to correct and solve information problems.Therefore, educators take this serious and they teach their student how to be IT Fluent. For example, the goal of an educator is to make sure the student knows how to approach and use the internet as if they were an expert. Search engines like Google have become a popular resource where student and other go to get information but if the student understands how it works and how to navigate it they are able to use as if they were experts, which is the ultimate goal. Chapter 5 also explains the differences between a free-text search, keyword/exact match search, and a Boolean search.It provides strategies on engaging the students and showing the student how to use these resources as well. When using the variety of searches you might come across different problems and receive different responses like misinformation and useless information. It also talks about Wikipedia and how it compares to a paper encyclopedia.

Chapter 5 also goes more in depth of how to educate your students on evaluating a website, strategies for teaching web evaluation to students, how to avoid plagiarism, and what causes plagiarism.

Chapter 4 Journal

How can teachers integrate technology into their work as educators? Teachers can integrate technology into their work as educators in many ways. First, teachers can integrate technology into their work as educators to present academic material and create interactive learning experiences. After doing my first 5 hours of observations, I noticed the teacher used many different ways of integrating technology into the classroom all day. For example, she used a smart board for her students to do demonstrate their answers on the board and also offered the students computer time during centers at the end of the day. I feel this teacher really used her technological resources throughout the day to help her students have interactive experiences and present education material throughout the day. Next, teachers integrate technology into their work for administrative purposes like taking attendance and responding to emails of events that could be occurring at the current time. Also, when teachers take their students to the library, this really gives the student more opportunity to advance with technology because in the library students have more advanced resources of technology that they could use on their own, which also helps the teacher integrate technology into their work as an educator. Furthermore, there are so many other ways that teachers integrate technology into their work schedules. They can assign homework to students that require the use of a computer. They can also use projectors and the internet to demonstrate different assignments and for personal use like tracking grades, attendance, and lesson planning.

Tech Tool 4.1 Online Technology Integration Resources After exploring some of the online integration resources, I could really appreciate the internet. I love the fact that there are so many resources out there to help an educator integrate technology into the classroom but also provide sufficient information to help the educator advance herself in her teaching skills.

Edutopia was a great resources, not only does it offer an overload of information on different technology topics, they also have contest for teachers to have an opportunity to win some extra tech tools themselves. Since I want to teach K-2 as my primary choice, I decided to explore this area on the site and got a lot of great information. I really enjoyed reading some of the articles and loved some of the videos I found. The video I'm posting this week was actually an idea I received from the Edutopia website called Phonics Vs. Sight Words. People were providing ideas on how where you could find additional resources.

  This Video was provided by YouTube user hooplakidz.

Chapter 4 Summary Chapter 4 provides lots of information on how to integrate technology and creating change. Along with the information provided to integrate technology, it also provides resources on getting extra information to help you integrate technology into your classroom. It also talks about how the use of technology can be divided into three separate categories: Inside-the-classroom teaching tools, Outside-the-classroom professional resources, and inside-and-outside-the-classroom learning resources for students. All three of these categories are then broken down into smaller categories with additional information that is great and how these additional resources are used as part of the job like teaching tools, office, and the learning environment. 

Chapter 4 also discusses the integration stages and issues you may come across on the job. Since every educator has a different teaching style, professional development is always required to help improve with the integration of technology. Having the appropriate support with your administration, helps curve these needs. It also brings up that educators might have an issue when using technology as a reward/punishment because reward can sometimes create destructive classroom dynamics. This will leave the student to lose interest because based on a theory from Alfie Kohn, the more you reward someone for doing something, the more they will tend to lose interest in what they had to do to get rewarded.

The digital divide, digital inequality, and the participation gap. This topic of the chapter really interested me because it talks about how students from low-income families sometimes don't have direct access to computers or internet. The term digital inequality basically says that adding more machines to home or schools will not changes or make a difference in access among different social groups.Participitation gaps occur when there is a lack of participation in student because they don't have the same opportunities as those with 24/7 access causing them to fall behind their peers.

Furthermore, chapter 4 continues to go on about how technology creates change and how teachers can create additional change with technology. This chapter I found to be very informative especially with the digital divide, digital inequality, and participation gap because I notice those things among my younger cousins who have the technology resources at home opposed to my other set of cousins who don't have the technology resources at home.

Chapter 3 Journal

How can teachers evaluate and assess their students? Teachers use many ways to evaluate and assess their students. As teachers begin planning their lessons and deliever their lesson to the class, they are able to being the process of how they will assess their students. After the lesson has been delivered properly is when educators can properly assess there students because it takes a minor process. First, personal experience is the first step teachers tend to educate and asses their student because they use the way they were taught. Next, educators use standarized testing to assess their students. This plays a major role in a students success because standardized test are required more and more and they determine whether or a student passes or fails a grade. Finally, teachers test also help influence how a teacher assesses and teaches their student because it influences the importance of a test to teacher which influences how important he/she might feel it is for the development of their students.

This Video was provided by awslutsky on YouTube

Tech Tool 3.1 Online Resources for Lesson Planning: Thinkfinity, PBS Teachers, and Giffy I chose Tech Tool 3.1 because with my other assignment I already explored PBS Teachers and found that site to be extremely helpful. I went to it for the lesson planning part and I really enjoyed all the ideas it provided for a teacher. I would defnitely use something like this especially because it provides many inovated ways of incorporating technology with you lesson and how to make it work for you. This site also provides ideas for different types and age groups of different students.

Summary of Chapter 3 Chapter 3 is mostly about how teachers plan, deliver, and assess lessons that engage students and improve academic learning through technology for the student. This chapter provides tips for lesson development using technology: what to teach, how to teach, knowing what students have learned, and putting all of these into action. Chapter 3 also provides different ideas on how to approach lesson planning in order to meet educational standards and the proper way to assess and evaluate students.