Entry Ten: Final Thoughts on Blogging

At the beginning of the course I was able to keep up with reading my classmate's blogs, but as the semester went on it became a little more difficult. I made sure to make time to read at least one person's blog post every week so that I was participating, but as the work load in both my classes got heavier it got more difficult to keep up with the work load as well as checking in with my classmates. I did enjoy writing my blogs it let me have time to reflect on what we had learned during that whole week and find new articles and websites that I can use in my future classroom when it comes to working on the technology aspect of teaching. I definitely think that I will be keeping up with it, but after making a new blog so that it can relate to my new classes each semester and then by the end of the semester when final exams come up I will know what key notes I should study from each of the previous weeks.

Entry Nine: Student Lesson

This week I did not specifically create my own lesson, but I did make a website for a fake classroom since I don't have one of my own at the moment. Trying to find a website that would let me create a website for free without having me pay for it after the free trial was difficult but once I found wix.com and got the hang of where all the different tools were and how they worked it became a lot easier than I thought it would be to make a whole website. I did use one of their templates so that I could just put in the information that I needed to and then move a couple things around and play with the colors and fonts using what we learned in the design principles week making sure everything went together and worked together. Making sure that all the colors worked cohesively was a little difficult because it only gave me certain colors but I did my best to make the website look approachable as well as not too bright that it became obnoxious.

Entry Eight: Web 2.0

I think that the Web 2.0 tools that we examined during this unit were very interesting to learn about. I knew about some of these tools but there were some that I didn't even know existed. One of the tools that in my opinion is important from an educational standpoint is teachertube.com, this site gives the students as well as the teacher the ability to use educational videos to keep the students focused on the task at hand at the same time as giving them a little bit of a break from lecture or worksheets. This website also makes sure that videos that don't pertain to what your topic is do not distract students from what you are teaching them. On the other hand there is a tool that is not good to use when it comes to an education standpoint and it is a tool that is very similar to the one listed above, it is youtube.com. I would not use this tool in the classroom because it might give good videos to use in the classroom but it also shows videos that do not relate to the topic that you are looking for and that can cause a distraction and peel away from precious learning time.

Website: http://www.techlearning.com/default.aspx?tabid=100&entryid=3936

Article: Ferguson, Rebecca, et al. "Pre-Teens' Informal Learning With ICT And Web 2.0." Technology, Pedagogy And Education 24.2 (2015): 247-265. ERIC. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

Entry Seven: PPT/Prezi

In my opinion, I love using PowerPoint. I have been using it my entire life and I love putting things together not just for a project but I do my slide shows and other things for friends for presents and things. Using it as an educational tool is very important, I think this because letting the students who may not be as artistic as others put information, pictures and video clips together and present it to the class. Another thing that I like about using PowerPoint is that for some students who do not feel comfortable presenting in front of the whole class there is an option to pre-record their presentation and let it play with the slides making it so they are able to present without feeling nervous or anxious.

Website: http://www.kidinfo.com/powerpoints.htm

Article: Gerido, Leona, and Mary Carla Curran. "Enhancing Science Instruction Through Student-Created Powerpoint Presentations." American Biology Teacher 76.9- (2014): 627-631. ERIC. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

Entry Six: Design Unit

I liked learning about the different design principles, my favorite had to be making sure that the colors as well as the fonts that are used when designing anything, i.e.: newsletter, flyer, or a poster. I definitely think that learning more about the different design principles will help me design better flyers. I would love to use these skills in my future classroom to send home with my students to invite their parents to school events as well as tell them all about what their children are doing in the classroom. I definitely think that it is important for both an educator and a student to have this information because it can help them in the classroom as well as in their personal lives. If a student wants to start a dog walking business they would want to know the best way to catch someones eye and have it so that they will read their flyer and possibly give them a job. And an educator as stated can use these skills to put together newsletters and things for the students to bring home to their parents.

Website: http://www.2care2teach4kids.com/preschool/classroommanagement/teachersdesk/page6.htm

Article: Maxymuk, John. Using Desktop Publishing To Create Newsletters, Handouts, And Web Pages: A How-To-Do-It Manual. How-To-Do-It Manuals For Librarians. Number 74. n.p.: 1997. ERIC. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

Entry Five: MS Word

When it comes to MS Word 2007 I really like it. I grew up using Microsoft products, so using the new updated version of the program was easy for me to use. Some things were made a lot easier to use, and all you have to do is just look around a little bit because some of the things that you already knew about could just be moved around. I definitely think that MS Word is an important educational tool, as technology's uses grow so does their demand in the working world to know how to use these programs so teaching students in classrooms is very important. Don't get me wrong I don't think it should be the only educational tool that the students are taught to use but it is a pretty important one. When I first started making my flyer and newsletter I thought that it was going to be easy, I have worked with word a lot since before this I have only had PCs. Setting it up with a banners, as well making sure that all of the fonts that I used worked with each other instead of against each other. Also making sure that you use a lot of different colors to make sure that you are able to grab the readers attention, but not any outlandish colors that would confuse them and make it harder to read. Once I got it set up the rest was so much easier.




Article: Symons, Duncan. "Using Microsoft Word To Teach Area." Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom 16.3 (2011): 20-24. ERIC. Web. 6 Aug. 2015.

            http://web.b.ebscohost.com.baypath.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8a3392af-3b4b-4432-ba9d-c3147cc33348%40sessionmgr114&vid=6&hid=110

Website: http://www.slideshare.net/jbacon/word-processingtips

Entry Four: Web Site Design

When it comes to web sites in the classroom I think that it is okay to use them every once in a while, but not to completely rely on them. I think that classroom web sites can be an important means of communicating with parents and students, depending on the economic means that your students families are living with. Not all families have the ability to use a computer and you don't want to have it so that one or even more students feel left out of what is going on outside of the classroom. If I were to set up a classroom web site, I would use Google Sites after learning how easy it was during this past week. 

Article: Vazquez, Gustavo, and Stephen P. Victor. "Designing A School's Web Site Using Information Architecture." (2000): ERIC. Web. 4 Aug. 2015.

                       http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED444583


Web site: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/04/10-excellent-platforms-to-create-your.html

Entry Three: Web Search Engines

When working with web search engines, in my opinion they are a little more difficult to use that the periodical databases. This is because you get so many different results, some may think that would be better because it is more information, but some of the results that come up do not revolve around the topic that you are doing research on they may only mention one of your keywords once or twice in the whole site. This means that you are spending unnecessary time reading through information that will not help you out in the long run. I think it is important that students learn how to use search engines because they can be helpful, depending on what you are looking for. If you are looking for just everyday information it is easier to use a search engine that will give you many different sources, but when it comes to articles that have been licensed and needed to be completely proven and up to date, unlike websites that can go months or even years without being updated, then using a database is the better pick. During this unit I learned so much about search engines and how there are many different pro's and con's to using them, you need to make sure when you are looking up information that you know what type of information you are going to need whether it be licensed or just everyday information.

Article: Kabakci, Isil, et al. "Opinions Of Teachers On Using Internet Searching Strategies: An Elementary School Case In Turkey." Online Submission(2010): ERIC. Web. 26 July 2015.

                      http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED537713

Website: http://www.kidtopia.info

Entry Two: Licensed Periodical Databases

When it comes to licensed periodical databases, I think that once someone goes over all the different things that you can do with it and how using different tools within it can change the results that you get on the specific topic, whether it be the amount of results or the quality on how closely they are related to the main topic that you are looking to get more information on. The reason using databases in the classroom is so important is that when student start to work on research projects, all they have to do is go to one specific place and find multiple sources that relate to what you are looking for. This causes less distraction because the students are on a site that only will give them articles and journals etc. and not just looking up on the web and finding websites that have games and not much information.  My experience using the databases in the past has been scarce, but after this week learning how to more effectively use them when trying to find articles, journals, etc. (using the Boolean search terms) really will make my future education and the needs of my future students a lot easier.

Article: Levetan, Janice. "In Comparison: Apples And Oranges And Lemons? Online Elementary Periodical Indices." Library Talk 12.4 (1999): 38-40. ERIC. Web. 26 July 2015.
  
 http://web.a.ebscohost.com.baypath.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=a3fd6ed6-e8ce-4bc3-9018-33d653d8e509%40sessionmgr4002&vid=13&hid=4106&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=eric&AN=EJ593558

Website: https://www.library.yale.edu/researcheducation/pdfs/Searching_Evaluating_Resources.pdf

Compares the web with databases - # of hits, relevance, etc.

Entry One: Blog Unit

When it comes to blogs I really do think that they are an important educational tool. This is because this gives the students a place to answer questions or reply to posts given by the teacher and help them feel like they are not going to be judged on their wording or their answer because the teacher is the only one that has the ability to read the post. I have not had the ability to use a blog in a classroom since I am currently not working in one, but thinking back to when I was in school I think that it would have been so much easier for me to use a blog or something like it because I was always nervous that if I got an answer wrong people would make fun of me. After learning more about blogging, I think it is kind of like what we do here on Canvas, by replying to teachers prompts on a regular basis. 

Article: Lou, Shi-Jer, et al. "Effects Of Applying Blogs To Assist Life Education Instruction For Elementary School Students." Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology - TOJET 12.4 (2013): 41-55. ERIC. Web. 26 July 2015.

                 http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1018031

Website: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtml