Week 5

My favorite two Web 2.0 sites are YouTube and Prezi.com

1. Youtube, beside finding hilarious clips of people doing and saying crazy things there are various educational opportunities. I use these videos a lot for character education. I feel like there are many different ways to incorporate Youtube into different lesson to make them more interesting.

2. Prezi.com, is my new favorite presentation software. Its so easy to understand and use that my 5th graders can figure it out without getting frustrated. The presentation web-site can be used in a variety of ways. I used it recently with my students as a study guide for the spelling words. I had the students put in all 20 words. The choose two words and wrote a sentence using the words. Then they found pictures on google and added two pictures to go with their sentences.

Week 4

Multimedia in the classroom

1. Digital Cameras are a form of multimedia I incorporate in my classroom. We have a set for the yearbook committee and we are able to use them to connect to the apple laptops for projects.

2.Powerpoints are used frequently in my classroom. I have various Powerpoint review games. I use them after a weeks lesson and do a fun review or remediation on Fridays.
I found many of my powerpoints from jc-schools.net

Week 3

Software

Drill and Practice-helps students master a skill at their own pace, usually repetitive.
FRS Fraction Master is an easy to use drill and practice program to assist students in learning to identify and understand fractions.

Tutorial- usually assesses the learner's skill, then presents new instruction, gives practice, asks a question and, depending on the learner's response, either remediates by re-teaching, or moves on to the next level.Dance Mat Typing is a free online typing tutorial to help students learn the key board.
Simulation-presents a situation to the learner, the learner makes a choice, and the software responds to that choice by taking one of several paths.
Celestia is a free 3D space simulation application that lets you explore our universe.

Instructional Games- helps student to review or learn a new skill in a competitive and fun way.
I have used a powerpoint Jeopardy game to review ARMT skills. Family Fued is also a popular game I use that involves larger groups of students.

Problem Solving-present the learner with a problem, and to teach problem solving and decision making skills integrated learning systems.
Gamequarium is a web-site that links to multiple problem solving games for students.

Week 2

Issues shaping the role of technology and education

1. Economic issues - Due to the recent economic downfall in the U.S. economy, there has been decreased education funding.  It is predicted that funds will not return to previous levels when the economy improves. Thus making buying computers, and technology for schools almost impossible.

2. Viruses- are causing damage to computer labs. Viruses slow down computer programs and slow internet connections to technology throughout entire buildings.

3. Privacy/Saftety- more and more students have access in their free time to the internet. With facebook and myspace and social networking off the charts, it's increasingly dangerous to put personal information on the web.



Things we have learned from the history of educational technology:

1.Increasing costs of keeping up with technology- to integrate technology into education it requires a significant amout of money, up keep, and on-going teacher training.

2.Internet Era- Moasic was introduced and turned a text-based internet into a text and graphic internet. By the 1990's teachers and students incorporated more internet technology into their educational practices.

3.Technically possible does not always mean the application is desirable or even feasible. Just because an application involving technology is possible doesn't necessaraly mean it's the more desirable option for everyone. Some people perfer to do their communications face to face or over the phone.