Week 4 Journal Entry

I read a lot of useful information in week 4 that can be beneficial to me in my education career. I feel that often people forget about standard 6 (technology) in the teaching standards. I feel that some veteran teachers are not technology savvy. Teachers should use available technology to plan design and instruction. One needs to know, how to use the internet to its full potential when education is involved. Clear expectations must be set for both teachers and students. When blogs and discussion forms are used in the classroom they must be intended to engage learners. There are many resources all over the web that one can use to engage learning in the classroom. I had not used google docs until this class and I loved it. Google Docs allow teachers to check student progress along the way, provide feedback, allows one to see who has fully helped on a project, and to inform students. Teachers may use a variety of social networking in their classroom. Some examples are Facebook, Pinterest and twitter. If teachers use social networking it can be used for a resource that includes keeping students and parents informed. Blogging would be good to use for middle or high school students. As we prepare students, for 21st century skills and next generation learners they must be familiar with technology and how it is used. Skills should be introduced in elementary school and built upon throughout their whole education. After reading about Web 2.0 and its tools I have a better understanding of what it is. Web 2.0 describes World Wide Web sites. It allows others to collaborate and interact with one another by social media. One can use 2.0 Web tools that pull all of your favorite sites and information into one live binder. This could be used for every student and teacher. Others are able to see one’s live binder also. All of your information is stored in one place to help one stay organized. I enjoyed reading 10 Best Practices for using a wiki in education because I have never really understood the uses of a wiki. Teachers have to make sure students know how to use the wiki successfully for it to be an essential technology tool in the classroom. Wikis allow for collaborative work among each other in the classroom. It allows for everyone to get involved and do their part. Collaborative projects are successful when they are planned out. On the webpage it gave teachers 10 suggestions on improving student’s acceptance to a class, group, or project wiki. As teachers, we want to make sure sites that we are using in our classroom are trustworthy. One wants to take multiple approaches when seeing if the website is reliable. When a site is asking for personal information including credit or debit card numbers it could be dangerous. If the site offers seem to good it could be possible that they are dangerous. One should use the following steps listed below to make sure a website is accurate and that one can trust it. The steps one should take while seeing if a website is reliable are how to investigate a site before visiting it, general approach to analyzing sites, make sure SSL certificate is trustworthy before making purchases, and how to report dangerous sites. I added several social bookmarking websites this week. I found several interactive sites for students that would enhance their learning. Some of my favorite posted on the social book marking site are Storyline online, 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults, MobyMax, Tumblebooks, and Educational computer games for kids. I have enjoyed working on my website by editing pages and creating new pages. I did not realize how simple creating a webpage really was until completing one for this class. I have worked on classes, students, and parent pages this week by adding pictures and information. I will continue to add and edit these pages over the next couple of weeks.

Week 3 Journal Entry

One should follow a certain criteria when evaluating websites. A criteria that one should look for is authority, purpose, objectivity, appropriateness, currency, responsibility, clarity, and accessibility. This will help one find if they have a good quality website or not. There are many different Teachlist and more evaluation links that one may choose from. I was overwhelmed with all of the wonderful sites and ideas that one can choose from. I learned more about social bookmarking and increased my knowledge in this area. I learned that tagging was a special feature of social bookmarking. Social bookmarking does not save the file but bookmarks the page. I learned about a new website called Edu-Clipper. This is a free website that connects educators with others using social bookmarking. One can see others ideas and what they like. Teachers and students can interact with one another also. The website is cool because you can add word documents or PDF files to your timeline and one can view it. Some teachers even add videos and they can control what is shared and what is not. I learned about all of the social bookmarking websites that are out there. I did not know of any of these websites before now. I found the uses of Pinterest interesting. The website describes using Pinterest in a collaborative direction instead of one directional way. This invites everyone in on pinning and sharing their ideas to one’s board. Everyone can pull their thoughts in together. Pinterest could be used for gathering opinions, tracking progress, and for charity drives. A lot of people never think about using Pinterest in these different ways. I learned a lot this week from social bookmarking. I had never done this before so I wasn’t sure of what to expect but after completing the assignment I found it very interesting. This is a good way for teachers to share ideas among each other. I plan to continue to work on my website and explore other websites. I want to be able to use my website for this upcoming school year.

Week 2 Journal Entry

This week, for Journal 2 I read a lot of useful information that can be helpful to me while working on my webpage. I found many different ways on how to create websites. As we are working on the webpage one is able to use any method as long as it is from the ground up. I read about three types of web creation that is available to one. These include From the Ground Up, Semi-Form the Ground up, and Semi-Semi from the Ground Up. Then I read about many of the websites one can choose for the Web 2.0 Service. I found that I will have plenty of web services to choose from. After reading this article, I found that I should begin at the bottom and work your back to the start page. I want my start page to be user friendly. I thought the 10 step process was helpful that was provided. Step 1: brainstorm all of the items and ideas that you might consider putting on your website. The list of the links that were provided helped me get an idea on how to get started on a webpage. Some of these I thought about using for my sitemap would be home, biography/contact me, photo, assignments, for parents, and for students. Step 2 is grouping how one is going to group the categories together. I found step 5 very helpful for one to develop a flow chart to be able to help one with a site map. I want to make my webpage easy to navigate through which is step 6. I think it would be beneficial to have a navigation bar that would be available for viewers to access. I want to be sure that I keep it simple for the ones viewing it. A website wireframe is just a sketch of what one wants their website to look like. It’s mainly for one to get their thoughts and ideas down. One can simply write down their ideas on a piece of paper. I learned that wireframes can be used for other things besides websites. I found and learned that the Weebly for Education is a good resource and I also learned that School Rack offers a free service for teachers who want to build their own classroom websites. Students and parents are able to create free accounts to be able to communicate with teachers. I read about many different tools one can use or create when making a website. Before reading about the iCloud I kind of already had an idea of what it was. I knew it was something that backs up one’s device. I did learn more about where and how the data is stored including what it is. The iCloud works similar to a drop down box. Overall, I learned a lot of useful information in week 2. I found useful information that will help me get started on my website from the bottom and work my way to the start page. It was helpful to look at the 10 steps that were included in building a website to make sure I will not leave any of these out. I learned the difference between a sitemap and wireframe. I had never heard of these words before so I was a little confused about what they were. This week I learned about a Dropbox and how to use it effectively. For my website I have picked 2 sites that I may use to build my own website. They are Weebly for Education and School Rack. I continue to look up more information for my website. For the most part I have picked out the site map for my webpage. The next steps that I would like to take are to work on the wireframe and get a good mock of the pages.

Week 1 Journal Entry

The first thing I did this week was I looked up 10 different teacher websites. I felt like I spent a lot of time looking up different websites and I got some good ideas for my own website. I looked up teacher websites including Elementary, Middle, High School, and administrative websites from the wiki EDOL 548 Technology spotlist page. Most of the websites that I looked up were organized and one could tell that they spent a lot of time putting it together. Some of the websites had not been updated for a while so it would be a good idea if the teachers did this before the school year started. When I was viewing the webpages it was hard for me to find something that I disliked about some of them. I found some wonderful ideas and great links that can be used. The teacher websites that stood out to me the most were from the Jefferson County Public Schools, Bullitt County Schools, and Daviess County Schools. I want to build a website that looks organized and is beneficial to teachers, parents, and students. I found some interesting things while reading “The Internet and Web Design for the Modern Teacher”. Classroom websites are usually used as an informational type of communication. This is a type of communication where students, teachers, and parents can all get involved. Students can learn content from a classroom website including resources, assignments can be posted, and books can be online. This will be another way that students and parents can stay up-to-date on school work. I liked how some teachers posted examples of work on their classroom website. This gives students an idea where to start. Every student and teacher needs to become familiar with technology because it is taking over in the world we live in today. In the article, Children’s Website: Usability Issues in Designing for Kids it targeted different age groups with technology skills. It did different studies and the one that I found interesting was the Children vs. Adult users. Kids need a design that follows different user guidelines than adults. I learned that a lot of designs that are made easier for adults can also help kids too. I thought it was neat that you posted your own example of a graduate journal and told what one had learned. I learned a lot from the 10 Tips for an A+ classroom website and it gave me some ideas what to keep in mind while building my own. I learned what to do and what not to do while building a website. I plan to continue to look for ideas for my own classroom website that are professional and will build communication between students, teachers, and parents. My plan for next week is to check out the DropBox and create an account. I plan to take these items back to my own classroom and school and use them with students and staff.