Website Reflection Week 10

This week was a very busy week for me. I worked about 60 hours and I am trying to squeeze in time to work on the website. At first I was extremely petrified of this assignment. The reason I was so scared is because I am very challenged when it comes to technology. I thought to myself how can someone who barely understands the different formats that you can save things in, possibly build a website! Well I got into Google Site Creator and was very impressed. I thought that it was very easy to "navigate" through. I enjoyed being able to hypothetically set up a class website. I think that the website will be a useful tool for students. However I don't think that you can replace face to face instruction. Someone like me truly benefits from face to face instruction.

Just like this online class has been very challenging to me, I feel that some students will be discouraged by the website. However, I do understand that in such a growing age of technology that I must suck it up and get with the times. My biggest concern as an educator is to reach every single student. I want to figure out how each student learns and reach them by making sure that I teach in a style that they understand and enjoy. For some students that will be a website. So I really appreciate the opportunity to get some practice with such a wonderful program to make a website.

Ms. D's 6th Grade Social Science Web Page

Week 8 Reflection on Assignments

Well as for this week’s assignments, I really enjoyed them. I struggled through getting them uploaded correctly and linked on my blog. However, I am very new to computers and struggle through most things technology related. I really enjoyed the exposure of the new websites and the tools that they offered me to create assignments for the classroom. I especially liked the Rubistar website. I had a class this summer that spent a lot of time on rubrics and they can get pretty complicated. However, if you are looking for a simple rubric it is an easy way to keep yourself from over complicating it. The puzzle maker was a great website as well. If you are going to be teaching younger students this would be an extremely helpful website. I don’t really see too much use for it for high school level students. I also ran into a little trouble getting my solutions to show. It kept saying that I needed to install Adobe Flash Player which I did and it still would not give me a solution. It would give me my puzzle but would not show a solution. That was an extremely aggravating process. If I was using them in the classroom I really would not need the solution, because I would know the answers and could make my own key. For this assignment I did need the answer key so it was a little discouraging. The easy test maker was my favorite site. I can really see myself using the easy test maker in the future. Creating a test can be a frustrating process. Easy test maker organized everything and simplified the stress of making a test. I can see that website being useful for many educators.

I enjoyed the web evaluation. It helped me clarify if that website was truly an effective and useful website for the students. Usually I don’t think people read that deep into websites and the web evaluation did not take very long and made you truly think about it.

Track star seemed like a useful tool. I am looking forward to using it and expanding my knowledge on the program. I really think that it would be quite effective in some situations. Track star can be used for a specific project that the students must complete. I liked how it could act as a road map for the students for a certain project.

I believe that this week was extremely helpful for me, I enjoyed all the helpful tools.

Week 8 Assignments' Links

Religion Vocabulary Scramble

Religions of the World Crossword Puzzle

Rubric

Religions Test

Religions Test Answer Key

Web Evaluations

Trackstar

Week 7 Question #1

What is the internet? What value does it hold for educators?

The internet is a wonderful form of communication, constantly transferring information all across the globe. Just like your school can share information across many different computers, which is called a network; the internet allows the sharing of information between networks. The sharing of information across networks makes communication limitless between different parts of the globe. You may not remember a world without limitless communication because we are so accustomed to the ways of the internet. Yet, many do remember a time where long distance phone calls were out of reach for many. Can you imagine not being able to communicate with a relative out of the country? What about a world without email? It is hard for society today to realize how difficult it would be to run a huge corporation without the constant communication that email provides us.

The internet is formed by millions of interconnected networks from across the globe (p. 249). The internet allows “world-wide resources” to be shared with one another (p. 249). Telecommunication connects computers to computers over large amounts of distance (p. 256). Phone lines are a form of telecommunication. When a computer is hooked up to a phone line it allows the transfer of the networks to and from that computer. Since the telephone line was meant to transfer only voices there is a little bit of modification that takes place. Usually the modem of the computer is able to modify the information for the computer.

The internet is a valuable tool in education if it used correctly and with proper supervision. First the educator must know how to use to the internet. Once the educator is well versed in the ways of the internet he or she can begin to use to assist teaching and learning. Email can be used as a form of communication from student to student, student to teacher, and teacher to parent. The student can send in assignments as an attachment through email. The teacher can make corrections and send it back to the student. This process saves paper and ink also. Students can sign up for newsletters through email and receive wonderful educational material. The internet offers chat rooms dealing with all kinds of subject matter. A student could discuss the economy with someone in Hong Kong. A teacher can post their notes, syllabus, and homework assignments on the internet. The internet also offers information faster than having to look through hard copies in a library. If a student needs to do a research paper, he or she can log on to a search engine and type the topic of their paper in and millions of results will appear.

The important thing about the internet in classrooms is that students are being supervised and it is only being used for educational purposes. The large amount of information that the internet dumps in your lap can be a great tool, but sometimes a harmful one. The educator must set boundaries for the students. The educator must be very knowledgeable on the internet and be a step ahead of the students who are surfing it.