Lesson Plans

The lesson plan activity was a lot of fun! Carrie Sorensen and I worked on the lesson together, since we are both in the Early Childhood program. As we began to brainstorm ideas, we quickly decided that a social studies lesson would be easy to incorporate technology into. Having seen Google Maps presented a few weeks earlier during the Web 2.0 presentations, we thought it would be fun to do a lesson on maps and use the Google maps technology. We titled our lesson learning about maps and planned it specifically for kindergarteners. The lesson would take place over the course of 1 full week.

Our idea to use Google maps was short lived. Once we realized level of skill required to use the technology, we decided that kindergarten studnets might find the activity too difficult. Instead, we decided to create and use a WebQuest about maps. Still, we wanted to include Google maps so we planned for a group activity on the SmartBoard later in the week. This way, the students would have some experience with maps before being introduced to a mapping technolgy.

The webquest we created was very simple and age appropriate. It includes games and other interactive activities that will teach the children how to use simple directions read map symbols,and use a map. We made the WebQuest on zunal.com. As we constructed the site, we used resources we found on the web and in the textbook. It was a fairly easy process to design the WebQuest. Carrie and I were actually suprised by how simple and quick it was to create a site. This is definitely something I can see myself using again in the future.

All in all, I was very pleased with the way our lesson turned out. Carrie and I enjoyed working on the assignment together, and I definitely feel like this is a lesson we could use in our future classroom.

Digital Collection Activity

This activity was a blast! I had so much fun looking for digital images that pertained to my theme. I chose elementary are because I felt this theme might be helpful to me at some point and I wanted to have a collection of images ready to use.  As I began to look for pictures, I searched for "Elementary Art" in the Google image collection. Right away, I found several pictures that were perfect for the activity.  It was actually really hard to choose just one to upload.  Next, I remembered having taken some pictures of childrens artwork at my practicum placement last year.  I quickly found the pictures on my flash drive and uploaded them to picasa.  Then, I Google searched "Elementary Art" again, but this time I looked for websites featuring artwork. It wasn't long before I found a picture to take a screen shot of.  This was probably the hardest part of the whole activty since I was on a PC and not a Mac.  In my experience, it is much easier to take a screen shot on a Mac.  In any case, I managed to get the screen shot and upload it to by Picasa album.  My next step was finding an image on a cd/dvd collection. This was fairly easy since the entire class went together to find images on computers in the 4th floor lab.  When I found the picture I wanted, I saved it to my flash drive and then uploaded it to my Picasa album. Finally, I scanned an image from a book and loaded it onto Picasa. 

After all the pictures were loaded on my Picasa album, I resized them using picnik.  This was super easy! I then saved the changes and returened to my album to add captions to each of my photos.  Upon adding the captions, I was done with the assignment.

I really enjoyed this activity and feel this process was helpful to learn. 

Wikis

I love Wikis! I think they are great tools for online collaboration. The fact that wikis allow for shared content and multiple collaborators is great for group projects and class participation.  I can easily see how helpful this would be in a classroom setting.  Prior to this class I had zero experience using a wiki, but I am now in love with this technology.  Using a wiki while working on the web 2.0 project showed me how truly amazing these sites are.  It was so easy for my partner and I to divide the work and collaborate online as we worked on this project. What I liked most about using this tool was being able to post my own information without having to someone else do it for me. Allowing multiple collaborators to contribute to the site helps get things done quickly and effectively. 

Web 2.0 and Tools

I thought the Web 2.0 project was a great way to introduce us (the class) to collaborative web tools that can be used in the classroom. My partner and I were assigned to Wordle, which is a web-based tool used for creating unique word clouds. As we explored the tool and familiarized ourselves with how it is used, we were suprised to find that it was not nearly as complex and confusing as we had expected it to be. Instead, we found it to be quiet simple and easy to use.  We also learned that this tool could be used for a variety of purposes in the classroom, which we discuss on the wiki page. 

Another aspect of this project that was beneficial to my learning was seeing the other groups give their presentations. Each group was very thorough and gave an excellent step by step tutorial for their tool.  It was interesting to see how each tool is used and to think of all the ways I could use them in the classroom. The possibilities seemed limitless!

Overall, I enjoyed the Web 2.0 project, and found it to be very helpful. My favorite tool is Wordle.  I like this tool because it is simple, quick, and easy to use. I also really love word clouds, so this tool is a perfect fit for me.

Website Evaluation

http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/

I believe this website is a really great tool for students and educators alike.  The site is set up as a free tutorial that teaches users how to discern the good, the bad, and the ugly in relation to the internet. Having a simple design and being easy to navigate are just two reasons why this I would recommend this site.

Reflection on Website Evaluation

After performing the website evaluation I realized how difficult it can be to determine the reliability of a website.  In the beginning, I chose what I thought to be a good site but after further examination I decided differently.  What I found was that there were both pros and cons to the site I chose.  While the overall design looked good and the information seemed fairly reliable, it was severly lacking in some areas.  In particular, the site lacked publication dates and author contact information.  The site also did not provide the reader with adequate information to determine whether or not the authors were actually qualified as an authority on the subject. In the end, I decided that I would recommend the site as it contains some great resources for language arts. However, I would only recommend the site after pointing out the inconsistencies previously stated.

My experience with technology

Like many college students, I consider technology to be a huge aspect of my daily life. I use it for just about everything from school to work to my personal life.  Some of the technologies I use most frequently include skype, twitter, facebook, youtube, and blogs. While I feel fairly confident in my ability to use technology, I still feel there is room for improvement. This is one reason I am excited about taking this course.  I believe that learning new and innovative ways to use technology will assist me in greatly in my teaching career and will also help me feel more comfortable trying new things.