FINAL Blog

    This semester I learned so much in TPTE. I thought that I was going to know how to do everything and that this class was going to be a breeze. This class challenged me and I learned a lot of new things! Creating a class website was so much fun, and I can't wait to be able to make one for my future students in a few years! All of the projects such as, the digital story, digital diagram, and others were so helpful to be able to create. I will be able to take those and use them as a future teacher. This class was so relevant and I can take almost everything I learned and use it in my future teaching career.
    I loved learning about the interactive white boards. Throughout my schooling I've always had a few teachers with these types of whiteboards, but they never used them for anything but a projection sheet. With this new knowledge if I ever have a whiteboard like that I can use it for so many different things! Learning how to use that software was one of the most difficult projects in that class, but it was definitely worth it.
    I feel so much more comfortable with technology now that I have taken this class! I feel that I can incorporate technology into my future classroom easily, and efficiently!

Critique of U of Houston Digital Story Website

This digital story gives a great, and detailed background of what Digital Storytelling is! 

It shares the 7 Elements of Digital Story Telling, including:
1. Point of View
2. A Dramatic Question
3. Emotional Content
4. The Gift of Your Voice
5. The Power of the Soundtrack
6. Economy
7. Pacing

     The website also gives 21st century skills, and lists the web 2.0 tools. The examples of Digital Stories is a great addition to this website. Not only does this website give background, and explain how to use these Digital Stories, but it also has featured stories to watch!

This website gives a detailed chart of how to start your digital story!

     The educational resources section is also a helpful tool, especially for teachers! It has lesson plans that can go along with digital story telling, workshop resources, evaluations and assessments, and e-books and guides! 

     Overall I think that this source is reliable, organized, and very helpful! I would recommend this sight to educators who are looking into using digital storytelling!

Chapter 1 IWB

     Chapter 1 in O'Bannon's Engaging Learners with Interactive Whiteboards gives a great overview of how the ActivBoard can improve student learning. Chapter 1 addresses the positive effects that the ActivBoard has on students and also includes research studies involving IWBs. This addresses the improvement of active learning, classroom management, lesson organization and flow, and the flexibility in handling lesson materials. Not only did O'Bannon express the positive side to the ActivBoard, she also includes a study that showed little to no effect of Interactive Whiteboard instruction. Lastly she explains the challenges to Interactive White Boards and the fact that teachers don't always use the Interactive White Board to its potential. I think that O'Bannon does a great job at discussing all aspects of the ActivBoard and introducing the rest of her book

Wiki Walk Through

     The Wiki Walk Through was a great source to help someone understand what a wiki is and how it works. Looking through how I can use a wiki in the classroom, I could not believe how many ideas there were! You can use wikis for so many things: study guides, vocabulary, research projects, "encyclopedia", travelogue, and so much more! You can use wikis for any subject area!
     After introducing the many ways to use wikis, the wiki walk through shows you step by step how to create a wiki. All of these steps were very simple, and I really think that anyone would be able to follow these instructions! This would be a great source for many someone who is not very technologically savvy.
     As a special education teacher, I think that wikis will be a useful tool for me to use between myself and the parents of my students. If I am teaching young kids, wikis may not be appropriate for my students to use, but if I am teaching older kids then I may be able to incorporate the use of wikis into the classroom. Most importantly again, I think wikis will be great for parents as a communication tool.

Mid Term Reflection

I have really enjoyed this class. Even though the class is three hours long, and is later in the evening- I still am engaged during class. I think that everything that we learned has been very helpful. Unlike some of my other classes, I really think that I will be able to take most of what I learned in this class and apply it to my future classroom! The class has not been too challenging and I feel that I have been able to keep up with work quite easily. I really enjoy this class and so far things are going great!

Website Evaluation

     This activity was very helpful with meeting the learning objectives associated with the evaluation of websites for my classroom. The idea of the website was great, but once I started to look further into it as I was evaluating, I realized that this website was not what I thought it would be. This website evaluation was a great tool in determining several factors to answer the question of why or why not would I want to use this website. I will definitely be using something similar to this evaluation in my future as a teacher!

Blog about a Blog

     I recently read through a class room blog, Ms. Cassidy's Classroom Blog, a resource for her students. When I visited this blog, my eyes immediately went to the picture of adorable 6 year-old students lined up against a fence. As I searched through, I found that this was a blog for her students! Down the side were all the links to each student's personal blog titled "Student's Name's Learning". Along with this list, there was also a gadget that allowed the class's twitter account to have a live feed on the blog! All of the text and colors were readable and everything on her blog was easily accessible.

     This blog is an incredible resource for both Ms. Cassidy's students as well as parents. She posts pictures and descriptions of what the students are learning and anything interesting that happens in and out of the classroom. What a wonderful way to integrate technology into the classroom at an early age. Looking through the student's blogs I saw that they post pictures of their projects and school work! This is the perfect tool to allow parents to keep updated in what their child is learning! There are links to classrooms across the world that this particular classroom connects with- how cool is that?

    This blog is an excellent example of how technology should be implemented in the classroom. I am impressed with the set up, simpleness, and overall idea of the blog. I want to use this idea in my future teaching!