Blog #7

I decided to utilize Blogs in my classroom as a forum for discussion of various things and images in the classroom. I would require that students answer the question that is displayed on the Blog and also comment on at least three student's comments to create a discussion. An example of this is my Economics Blog.

Blog #6

This was a great module with mounds and mounds of information and tools that are great for enhancing instruction and getting students connected in the classroom. One of the common but still great ones is YouTube. YouTube allows us as educators to bring media into the classroom in the way of clips, movies, visual tutorials, music and so much more into our classrooms. It is a great resourceful tool to incorporate in the classroom. The next tool I explored was Go Animate. This tool allows me to add spice to my anticipatory set in the lessons. I can utilize this tool to get the students attention & to introduce the concepts to be discussed or introduced in the day's lesson. It can also explain directions individually to students when they play the animation so that if they missed anything they could quickly and easily access the information without me having to stop the class to assist one student. I can better meet the needs of all students utilizing Go Animate in this manner. Prezi was very exciting to explore and I look forward to creating presentations for lessons and having the students create presentations in this program. It brings an exciting element to presentations for both creators and viewers. Xtranormal was phenomenal in having the ability to create. I see students reaching the Synthesis level of Blooms by utilizing this tool. Students create their own movie to accomplish a goal or objective. This is dynamic. The last exciting tool I want to discuss is VoiceThread. This tool allows discussion of a type of media such as a picture or video that will meet the needs of most all students because it allows you to comment by phone, voice, document, writing (which can reach most all intelligences). Having a class discussion beyond the classroom is a awesome tool to incorporate in your classroom.

Blog #5

Exploring through GOOGLE and all it has to offer was both exciting and overwhelming. I have found so many things I can get acquainted with that will enhance what I do in the classroom and beyond. I guess in answering what was my favorite application....I would have to say GOOGLE DOCS. This is a great tool to utilize in the classroom because so many students may or may not have computers or may not have all of the programs needed to accomplish what is asked of them in the classroom such as Powerpoint or even Microsoft Word. And with ZGOOGLE DOCS, students do not need to have these programs on their computer....they need access to google and an account with GOOGLE. Once a document is created in GoogleDocs, students can either submit it dorectly to me & I can make corrections/edit it within GoogleDocs & sen it back to the student. These documents can also be shared with others making cooperative learning more effective & efficient by not always requiring person to person contact to accomplish the completion of these types of assignments. A great resource to learn how to incorporate GoogleDocs in your classroom is:

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Blog Post #4

Creating a personal learning network through IGOOGLE was very useful. I liked the fact that all my google applications could all be gathered on one page. It makes it easy to access and less likely of forgetting you either have the application or forgetting where it is located.  One of the cool gadgets I found and added to my IGOOGLE was the sticky notes gadget. I find that periodically I need to write myself notes either to remember stuff, location of stuff, fun facts, cool sites and even appointments. In real life I use them in this manner and I feel having the same ability to do so on the computer is absolutely great. I find this very useful again as being a personal online planner. I can add commitments to the calendar, easily access you tube videos, have options to make my time useful during down times such as playing games, create and send documents, hold saved websites from my Delicious bookmarking site and much more. I think this app not only can add to the management of time and documents.