Chapter 8 blog post

Focus Question: How can teachers use email or instant messaging to foster information exchanges with and among students? Email and instant messaging is one of the largest ways of communicating between each other. Teachers use email to communicate with students, colleagues and families. So why not bring it into your classroom for not only giving students the option to contact you on the weekend via email or as teachers we can even set up a time once a week and offer a instant message hour for any students who need help, it will help students who feel shy about asking questions in person. But argued in the book it is true that a lot of instant messages/texts can be misread.  
Tech Tool: One of the tech tools that was offered was our very own blogger from Google. we use this blog for our very own class. Each student has a blog in which our teacher and other students can view each others blog and can help use it for research. It also gives people a chance to create their own blogs for the public.
Summary: Chapter eight talks about all the ways that teachers and students use computers and other ways to share information and ideas in the classrooms and online public. The first couple of sections talk about the different websites that can come about with teaching that you can use with the class. Blogs are pretty popular because students can write their ideas or homework and it gives students and teachers a chance to comment on their blogs. Another type of communication that was spoken about instant messaging and email is used for communicating with students and colleagues.




Maloy, Robert W. Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2011. Print.  

JEOPARDY!!!!

Technology is slowly creeping its way into the classroom and a big tool that people may not consider is online games. Now online games is normally what kids will have on their computer on a tab underneath what they should be doing for work. Now in days we as teachers need to keep up with the times and figure out a way to keep them interested. While doing research I cam across a website that had a couple of games that teachers created in order to help with their lessons and get the kids excited. Tech Tools. One of the games I found to be helpful was the Flash Jeopardy, it is the traditional game to which you can plug in your own questions and answers. This is a great activity because it gets the kids excited about answering the questions and helps with social interaction with the students because you can create teams. I enjoy being able to get the students excited and have them actually pay attention in order to WIN.

Click Here to see Flash Jeopardy in action.

Chapter 6 Blog

Focus Question: What are WebQuests and virtual field trips? are virtual field trips that engaged web-based teaching methods. Virtual field trips allow students and children to visit places all around the world as part of their studies.
Tech Tool: The Cave Web sites like these are great to grab the attention of students. If they have more hands on research and are able to go through pictures and truly get into the website it makes it easier for them to pay attention and get interested. The nice thing is that its a lot of facts and information shorten in a couple of paragraphs and we know how students love reading things that are short. By clicking some of the photos it takes them to other places in the cave and to view some of the amazing art work in the cave will get the creative juices flowing.


Chapter Summary: This chapter introduced resources such as bookmarking, social bookmarking and information alerts. We even use some of the book markings in the class such as delicious. This tool is very helpful for teachers that research information and are able to keep it in a safe area that they can pull up the information on any computer. Also Social bookmarking is used for group projects so when students are at home they can all work on the project together with out having to be there. And everyone has encountered an information alert at some time.  When they are using their own computer any time something new for their system is available a little pop up comes on the screen and tells them about it, even with phones now with apps. Its great for teachers who are looking for something with google alerts and they type it in and want more information when they have it they will be let in on when the information is ready and it will alert them by email.














Maloy, Robert W. Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2011. Print.

Chapter 5 Post

Focus Question: What are search engines and how do they work? It is a tool the enables anyone to access online information by locating web pages that have been linked to data base.

Tech Tool: Flickr  is a website that helps people share their photos they have created and also helps people search for photos they need. The photos on this website can be divided and grouped together in certain subjects or themes and they can share a common interest. People can explore the world with just looking at photos and get in contact with photographers for events. When creating power points for class you can use some of these photos for the project.

This Chapter is mainly about search engines such as Google, Bing, and Wikipedia. It discusses how to use the information you receive wisely and learn how to site it officially. I understand the Internet critics when they speak about is online research really reading and they say no. Because most of the time students are going online to find the quick answer instead of reading the material completely. Which is why we need to teach students that most of the time the internet is just a helping tool not the complete answer and we need to show that they can receive the information they are looking for online but you have to watch what you search.  Also a lot of this chapter is about preparing the students for the future with being technology savvy. And we had a project in this very class about website evaluation and how to determine if the information is reliable or not.

Maloy, Robert, and Ruth O'Loughlin. "Transforming Learning with New Technologies (with MyEducationKit)." Pearson Education -. Library Of Congress Cataloging In Publication Data, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/bookshop/detail.asp?item=100000000350920>.