7. Powerpoint Thoughts

     I hadn't heard of Bloom's Taxonomy was before this blog post. Bloom's taxonomy helps distinguish fundamental questions in the education system. There are different levels such as; create, evaluate, analyze, apply, understand, and remember. It would be beneficial to use each level to better teach a lesson. A powerpoint could help bring up topics of discussion for evaluation, produce concepts for synthesis of ideas, analyze and break down concepts from the textbook, students can apply their new ideas through powerpoint, they can better understand the lessons through pictures on the slides, and the powerpoints can be posted online for students to be able to remember the content later. 
     Adaptive Learning Technologies are used to help students with learning disabilities and also 
physical and mental disabilities. These technologies can be simple tools, like spell checker for the 

learning impaired, and also much more involved, like the joy stick for visually impaired. Students 

who are blind could use brail printers and speech application programs instead of typing. An issue 

could arise when teaching younger students, because the kids who do not need these adaptive 

technologies may want to use them, and not understand why they dont get to use them. 

     My web page assignment was really hard for me at first. I am not great with new programs, nor do 

I typically adapt well to them. But Weebly became almost second nature by the end. I think the end 

effect is visually appealing, and a great way as a teacher to get in touch with parents, send out 

information, and give students the resources they need for assignments. I did not like the aspect of the 

program at first, but once I realized how to navigate and use the design, it became almost simple. I 

am unable to post a screenshot of my page because my laptop does not have a print screen button. 

But here is a link. Enjoy!!!     http://burrough.weebly.com/ 


P.S., I do not know why the spacing is funky in this post. I apologize! 

Fighting PowerPoint Death

This slideshow is really helpful in finding ways to effectively use powerpoint. It talks about how to use it to get your point across in an interesting way that wont put your viewers to sleep. One thing that I really liked about the information on the slides was how they broke the information down into structure. They talk about keeping it simple, to keep your audience focused.

Death by PowerPoint from Alexei Kapterev

6. Websites and Efficiency

       The website I chose is the overall school edline page from Longleaf Elementary School in Melbourne, Fl. I chose this site because not only did I attend Longleaf, but my mom is also a current 1st grade teacher there. I specifically like Longleaf's edline page because it is very easy to navigate. I chose the whole school's page and not one single class, because with how edline works, only teacher, parents, and students with edline accounts can have access to the class sites. I like this aspect of the site because it shows that it is a safe and secure place for students to go to get their class information. I have used edline for years because it is the grade source for all schools in Brevard county. Edline has quick and easy links that are easy to follow and always take you back to the home page. Grades, assignments, and class announcements are easily located on each class page, as well as in the tabs on the top tool bar.


      I envision myself using technology in my classroom as much as possible, as well as efficiently as possible. Chapter 7 talks about using tools such as word processor and electronic spreadsheets, and many more. These tools especially stick out to me as efficient technologies for the classroom. There are endless ways to use word, as we learned in the newsletter assignment. Electronic spreadsheets are something I'd love to explore more and get a better sense of how to incorporate the spreadsheets in my classroom. I think spreadsheets are great for behind the scenes, organizational work for teachers. They keep everything precise and in tact for not only grading, but other purposes too. I liked how the podcast reviewed twitter, in saying it is a less intrusive way to contact parents, rather than email or phone calls.
       The web evaluation assignment confused me at first, mostly because I over complicated it. I did not realize that it was basically just what I naturally do every time I find a new source. Once my group made the checklist and I saw the criteria, I realized that is the thought process I usually have when researching. I always check for credibility, ads, and easy navigation. I did, however, like how we were in groups and made a wiki together. I had never made one before, and it made it easier to understand the process of making one with other people involved. I think next time, I should look more closely at resources attached to websites to ensure credibility.

5. Web tools

      The podcast gave some great insight to programs that are available on the web and can be utilized in the classroom. These "Web 2.0" sites and tools are more advanced than web 1.0 tools used in the past. I personally think that all the tools mentioned in the podcast can be very helpful, all to their own extent. One tool that I find very useful is YouTube. YouTube is a site that has all sorts of videos on all sorts of topics. I believe it can be a great source for videos that pertain to standards and lessons. However, this site can quickly turn unsafe for students. There are great educational videos out there for teacher and student use, but they must be found in a safe way. I also like the use of twitter in a classroom sense. Twitter has grown to be a very popular app and has proved to be useful in many aspects. The podcast talked about how students could follow professors or other educational handles and view content that way. I had never thought about using it that way. Teachers must be aware of which sites are compatible with which operating systems to be able to effectively use them. Chapter 5 explains how they must also be aware of their system's processing speed and access memory.   

     The podcast introduced a site to me I had never heard of called Diigo. This site has many helpful tools and aspects that I believe can be very helpful as a teacher, or to have students use. Users are able to collect, annotate, organize, and share all on the website. With collect, one can save and tag sources to come back and visit them later. With the annotate tool, one can annotate web pages and pdf's directly as you browse online. You can organize your links, references, and personal input in a structured research base. And then you can share any work with your friends, classmates, or associates. There are many tools on this website that are very helpful and could be very beneficial in a learning environment. 

     I really like Diigo because of easy to use tool, and the set up of the site, itself. The site is very aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. The site has graphics that are cute, colorful, and all around inviting. The site has clear buttons to navigate the site, and easy tool bars to help. It is easy to sign up, and the tools are very supportive of any research that needs to be done. One aspect that I love is the sticky note tool. You are able to put sticky notes on anything you are reading and keep them there. You can go back later and use the sticky notes as notes to write on the organization outline. 

     Concept mapping was very new to me before last week. I am not sure why, but from my educational background, I have never had a teacher or professor that used the maps as a learning tool. So this was new for me, but I found them to be a great way to show difficult information to an audience and transform it into something pleasing to read and study. I liked the webspiration classroom because it was very easy to use and create the perfect concept map. I think next time I should work to make my concept map more complicated, and improve my map by thinking more outside the box. I thought the whole assignment was a great introduction into the many ways concept maps can be used at any grade level. You can easily add more information for a secondary class, or keep it simple for a K-12 lesson. I enjoyed learning the benefits of the map. 

4. Using the Internet to my Benefit

• The standard SS.8.G.1 is a social studies standard that has students "understand how to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technology to report information." This is an eighth grade geography standard that will help students tremendously later in their studies. 
• I would have my students visit http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/ and explore the geography games to better understand where historic events occurred. 
• This tool is a site for educational games. 
• On this website, there are games that have students memorize chosen countries, states, or continents. I can pick which game correlates to my history lesson and have them play the games until they get a 100% on each area of the map. For example, if I wanted them to understand where in Europe the Russian Revolution happened, I would have them play the Europe region games that have them learn the geography around Russia. 

      I believe the Internet is a great way for students to explore other mediums for research. Younger kids should learn early how to navigate the web and learn how to value research. They can use sites like pebble go, and National Geographic for kids to find information for their lesson. Websites and databases are a great way to give students a break from the use of textbooks. Even for just looking up the definition of a word, the Internet is a great tool that can easily solve problems. Sometimes, however, the Internet can be not useful when gathering information. On some sites, like wikipedia, information may be skewed. On that specific site, information is provided by the public. Whoever may contribute. This may not serve as a useful source for children to use. The Internet can have tons of invalid information. This is why .edu and database sites are more useful and safe. 

      I learned a lot from the podcast. I do some of the techniques talked about when searching the web, like; looking for correct spelling, grammar, and ads. I know that if a source is somewhat credible, it will not be swamped with ads. One thing I never thought about was looking at if the content is biased. I never thought about if the content if biased, it may be less credible. A lot of new sources online are biased, but I never thought that would necessarily make them less credible. I also always try and stay on .edu, .gov, and .org sites when I am searching the Internet for actual resources, rather than leisure. 

     I thought the web hunt was a really great way to teach us how to find media for our future students. At first, I thought the assignment was kind of hard. I didn't realize that once you use the correct way to google search, you can find things very easily. Also, I learned a lot of tips and tricks that will help me in the future to find credible and primary sources, and things I have the right to. I was surprised especially about all the sites for teachers out there that can help me later in my career. For example, the site where it helped teachers set up their own website for their students is a great and helpful source. 

1. You are teaching an astronomy lesson and would like your students to play games related to space but still educational. Find a site. 
2. You want your students to research polar bears on a kid friendly site. Find a facts for kids page on polar bears.