After 11 reflections

I think the most useful tools are the image generators. It is a fun way for students to review what they have learned. My students are about to start learning about a different country and it would be great for them to generate image videos of pictures we find, or even for me to show them a little video of different aspects of the country with a image generator.

I have definitely transformed my thinking of using technology in the classroom. I used to think that technology should be used spareingly. However, I now realize that it can be used often, for various purposes and it makes learning and teaching more fun for everyone.

It has really surprised me how much technology has advanced since I was in schooo. I don't even feel that old!!

Tool #11

The things I would teach students about being good digital citizens are:

•      checking references
•      comparing different resources
•      drawing your own conclusions

I think that it is important to teach students how to make sure that what they are reading online is creditable. However, I feel that one should not start by simply teaching it based on technology. We need to show the kids with concrete examples. If you give them a book and show them how to check its references, compare it to other sources they will be able to transfer that information when they look for information online. We need to go back to the basics, if we skip the basics students will not understand the more complex online world.

Tool # 9

1. It would be very helpful to use Jing if I give the students an assignment that they have to complete on a computer. It would make it a lot easier for them to follow instructions and go to different pages and use different applications if they have visuals of what and where they are suppose to be and see.

2. Skype is an awesome program. I used it while I was in Spain to keep in contact with my family. Although the only draw back is that you have to set up a time for both people to be on the computer on Skype at the same time. This gets challenging when you consider time differences. However, it would be great for kids to be able to talk to students from different schools, and even be able to do projects together through Skype.

Cool Video

This is a fun video for kids to learn about a strange animal.

http://video.kids.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/animals-pets-kids/wild-detectives-kids/wd-ep4-narwhaltooth.html

A Noun is a Person PLace or Thing

Tool #6

This website is very similar to google docs. It basically is useful in the same way, people can coordinate without having to send, re-send, and reply to tons of e-mails. I feel that this tool is more useful for projects and experiments. Students can use this to create a project together and then share it with the rest of the class. It would make it easier for different groups of students to compare information quickly. This would also be a fun way to have kids teach each other about different topics that they have learned about. I can really see this as a fun useful tool for kids to use. They might also enjoy seeing there work online and be able to show it to there parents and relatives.

Tool #5

These bookmarking website is really useful. I found the following two websites that seemed very interesting. One personally interesting to me cause I love soccer and its nice to find a website that sells cheap soccer jersey. The other website is a fun website with different tools to use in school with technology. The key words I used to find these two websites was "cheap soccer jersey" and "teacher supplies"

www.jersey99.com

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/

It would be very beneficial to use these websites to have a set of bookmarked websites for the kids to use when they are on the netbooks. This way you no for sure the students are going to websites that you have already approved.