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.