Recorded Group Discussion... FAILURE

Today we experienced the computer Gods. It seemed like every technology task failed. We were supposed to get into groups and record a discussion between a teacher, parent, and principle. The teacher was trying to convince the PTA and school to invest i-touches so students could document the weather. My group was supposed to record this discussion on a camera. However, we were supposed to have the discussion via our virtual selves- avatars on science sim. No one in my group was able to access this. We tried for 30 minutes... but failed. The other half of the class recorded their actual faces... and it was a success.
After our attempts failed, the class worked on our inquiry lesson plans and websites. The class website was down, so it was hard to finish our tasks.
That is something I learned today... technology is not always reliable. Things happen that are out of our control. As a teacher, using technology can be risky. It's something that may not always work. It is important to have a back-up plan. It's also important to be understanding and flexible. Hopefully the course website is up soon! :)
Oh... and this is my last post because today is the last day of class!
Peace out INST 4010. It's been a great semester!

Website Evaluation/Edith Bowen

1. My favorite evaluation form was the MidLink Magazine Web Page Evaluation Form because it allowed the person judging to rate the different aspects, not just check yes or no. After rating each section, the total score explained if it was a valid site or not. The form I didn't really like was CyberGuide. I felt like this form had the least amount of information. I didn't like the set up. I felt the other forms gave more information of the site and let the evaluator explore the website more fully.
2. I didn't really find any hidden secrets. One thing that was hard for me to find was the date the websites had last been updated. I enjoyed reading the mission statements, sponsors, and seeing where the company was based. This is information that I usually don't pay attention to.
3. It is important to use website evaluations because not all websites are valid. Anyone can make any website, so it is important to make sure the website is accurate, current, and factual. It is important to teach this to students so they can use websites accurately for research projects.
4. I wouldn't use an evaluation form if I was shopping online, playing games, or any other leisure activity online. It isn't really relevant for non educational purposes.

Today was my favorite day in class. We went over to Edith Bowen and talked with one of the teachers there. He is great and incorporating technology in the classroom. He wrote a grant and got ipods for every student in his class. He has podcasts, videos, games, and audio books loaded on them. It is great for the students to use. He also showed us how he uses google docs and his class website. Everything is updated online and is e-mailed to the parents. He talked about using text messages to send the parents information. I think this is a great idea!
We got to work with the students one and one and they showed us their favorite aspects of technology. My student showed me the math link they use in class to time their math facts. He liked this the best. He also showed me spellingcity where the students do spelling activities and pre-tests online. He also showed me a typing game they play to increase their computer skills. He was really enthusiastic about it and he was great with using technology. I was impressed at how much he knew and what he could do on a mac computer.
It was really cool to see how a teacher uses technology in an elementary school classroom. He had great ideas. It was cool to see how much the students could handle.

Lesson Plans

Today was awesome! We learned a TON in class that I found to be very useful. We are creating lesson plans online for our students to learn and explore independently. We used the ia.usu.edu website, which I am a huge fan of. I am in my practicum right now in a 1st grade classroom. My teacher does a lot of group centers for math. One center is computers. I would love to have my students use my lesson plan for one of the computer centers. I learned how to search for lesson materials on the ia website. I could search for specific content for a specific grade. I found a lot of games to practice adding facts. I saved a lot of these games in my folder and I'm using them on my website. I also learned about teachingtube.com. This is a great tool. I found a few videos and pictures that I want to put on my website. I am so glad I found this resource.

I am still working on my lesson plan but I got a great start! I am pretty excited about this! :) I think the students would really like this.

Web Quest

Today we learned about Web Quest. To sum it up, Web Quest is a website that allows students to participate in projects online. All of the information is accessed online. Teachers can give the students a URL and then leave it up to them to explore and complete different tasks. It sounds like a cool idea right? Yeah, it's sweet. Teachers can search the website by subject and grade level. At first I was really excited. It's sounded like a great idea to let students learn, inquire, and to create their own learning.
One of the problems with this website, is a lot of the website it gives the students didn't work. I had A LOT of problems with this. Also, sometimes when I searched the URL, it couldn't find anything. It got pretty frustrating.
I explored lots of activities. Some were useful, but others seemed like busy work. If I was to use this as a teacher, I definitely would research it more and try all of the websites to make sure it worked.
I was thinking about my practicum this block. My teacher uses a lot of activities on the computer. She uses the computer for different rotations. I think this could be a great idea to use for rotations and small group work.
I think this website is a good idea, but it does have some flaws. It does give teachers good ideas. As a teacher, I would probably use the ideas, but not the exact format it has on webquest.