CHAPTER SEVEN

I did not enjoy reading chapter seven but it did touch on the fact that educational resources do need to be evaluated properly. The rubric on page 181 to me could potentially be useful as a parent in deciding what video games to purchase for my child. My cousin is nine years old and plays call of duty, grand theft auto, and all types of violent games and it is reflective in his behavior. His mother does not monitor his behavior or care but the fact that he gets in trouble at school everyday and is allowed to be exposed to extremeley violent entertainment at a young age may suggest a correlation. Not to say I wasn't exposed to bad things as a child, but I at least was told what was wrong or right about them. The whole concept of video games in the classroom still doesn't sit well with me but perhaps something will change my pespective in the future.

The section on google earth was cool because I actually never used it in the classroom but was amazed by it when it first came out. Something such as that can graviate a student's attention towards it without being overly stylized and violent.

QUESTIONS:

1.What is your opinion on the potential use of video games in the classroom?

2.How do you plan to evalute which educational resources to exploit for your classes?

3.Off the top of your head, can you list any educational resources you will DEFINITELY use in the classroom? (ex. powerpoint,excel,etc.)

CHAPTERS 8 AND 9

Chapters 8 and 9 discuss communication through web based programs primarily. After reading chapter 8, I saw a lot of pros on sharing information online for classroom use but am still not sold completley. The whole concept of building learning communities is amazing in principle and with the right personalities involved, could become very entertaining and refreshing in the right context. This may be a very arbitrary example, but I loved twitter during the presidental debates because it allowed me to see how much my friends really knew about politics and made the debate much more entertaining and enjoyable than it otherwise would have been without the implemation of social networking. The email and instant messaging portion brought up a grave concern that I've always had, and that is that one day most people will only be able to communicate in textspeak instead of real words. Sometimes, I, myself get lazy and do this but I have never written a paper or formal email of any sort using textspeak.

The discussion of powerpoints in chapter 9 was intriguing. I have known how to use powerpoint ever since it was created when I was in elementary school since our school decided to have a computer class since I was in kindergarten. It did not hit me that sixteen years later it would still be relevant to my life. I think powerpoint and webquests could be very useful if implemented creatively and effectively.

QUESTIONS:
1. Despite its benefits, how do we combat textspeak inevitably being the potential standard for our society?

2.In what ways would you create interactive media for your classroom?

3.Discuss the pros and cons of social networking being used in the classroom.

4/18 CLASS REACTION

Today's class was very informative. I had not learned about assistive learning until tonight and it was a very eye opening discussion. Assistive technology will become more relevant as technology becomes more affordable and it will be intriguing to see how the students become more educated as a result.

APRIL 4, TAKEAWAY

Today's class was very intriguing. The whole conversation about English inevitably being a universal language because of the internet was eye opening. I had never really given that idea much thought until today. Also the idea of being responsible on the internet was a fun conversation. The term "facebook famous" was funny. I am excited for the video project because the examples looked interesting.

CLASS REACTION 3/21

Today's class was very informative. The peer review for our webquests was an interesting in class assignment because we got to see how everyone is progressing with their ideas. I regret not spending more time with the webquest so far because of time constraints but it was still good nevertheless. I look forward to tweaking everything to the best of my ability and seeing how everyone does with their project as well. I liked the first video we had to do and enjoyed doing that project and hope to enjoy the webquest just as much even though it is a different creative medium.

CHAPTERS 4 & 6

Chapters 4 and 6 were interesting but they basically just touched on the same things we've been discussing in class previously. The inclusion of technology in the classroom seems as though it will inevitably have to happen in every class by they way they described the scenarios in chapter 4. It was bizarre that they mention the website "goodreads" in chapter 6 because I recently just signed up for it. Social bookmarking could become a useful tool if the students can distinguish between helpful resources and ones that are not as good better. The virtual field trips was interesting, we got to see the use of that in class this past week as well. I think it is an interesting tool but I don't think it can completely substitute for going to a real place.

1.As an educator, what do you think is the most effective way of incorporating technology in the classroom in an organic manner?

2. What is the most important element of social bookmarking in your opinion?

3.What are the pros and cons of virtual field trips? Do you think it should be common?

MARCH 14 CLASS REACTION

Today's class was very enlightening in terms of looking at how to integrate technology in the classroom. The rubric for different aspects of how to judge references gave me a whole different perspective for what to include on my WebQuest. Almost as much thought that I have to give in assigning the project, I will have to give in suggesting resources. The interactive field trip websites we went on were interesting but they have their pros and cons.