Conclusion

This class was quite a journey for me. When I started this class I had no idea how I was going to finish it. Now that I am almost done I am so proud of myself that I made it. I feel that I learned a lot. Some of the stuff I used I can definetely use some of the stuff I learned I definetly cannot use.

My feelings about access to the internet still holds. Many of my students this year, and for years to some, may not have access to internet inside and outside of school. If this is the case a lot of this stuff must be differentiated in order to use. I definetly want to use my website next year. I'm very excited about creating it and think it will be informative yet engaging for my students to use. I definetly want my visual learners to use it next year. I am also interested in creating a blog for homework assignments and use rss to have it just get sent to me. I think this will make my paper load and organization much easier. It will also help me modify my lesson for the following day. I also have started using podcasts in my room as differentiated instruction for certain students.

Overall I am now thankful for all of the information I have learned in this class. I am excited to use everything I have learned to end this school year and for the next school year.

Social Bookmarking

I really did not know too much about social bookmarking until the presentation on it. I first learned about RSS. I thought that was really cool because you can get updates sent right to you. I can use this with my students to update them on certain assingments I want them to do. This also works well with class blogs. I can have my students blog about a certain topic and have that be sent straight to me.

Social bookmarking is also a cool topic. I can make a website and have different sections bookedmarked on the side. This will make it easy for my students to find sections that I would like them to look at. It also makes everything more organized.

Brain Pop

So my school is registered to this website called brainPOP. It is a cute website that has small video streamings for different topics in all subject areas. I like to use this site as a motivational piece. The students get interested by the cartoons and characters, which gets them hooked into the lesson quicker. The videos also try to link the topic wo something in everyday life. If the students start off interested then they tend to have a better chance to stay interested throughout the lesson.

Heres my problem though. I do not have an projector in my classroom that will allow me to show these videos largly to the whole class. Instead I must show it on a small computer and have the students huddle around to watch. The problem with this is the students in the back might not be able to see and will get bored. Other times I might have selected students watch the brainpop video while others do separate work. The problem with this also is that students get upset when they cannot go to the computer, even if they get a chance the next day.

As much as I love learning about all this new technology that I can use for my students, I still am facing the problem of the access to the computer. Not all students can be near the compter and others cannot operate it well. I will still be trying to experiment with ways to use technology. Hopefully if my website comes out good I can use it for next year.

Multimedia

Multimedia is used all over the web in many different ways. Multimedia is aso something that I would like to use to create my website. Audios, videos, and images are type of multimedia that is used in the internet. All of these should be used in order to engage children and gage all of thier multiple intelligences. They can also be used to bring up higher order thinking questions.

Audios can be used to create sounds in your webpage. Some children can learn better when they hear what they are being taught. Also sounds can create background noises which will make the website more inviting. When the website is more inviting then more studetns will ant to visit it and do the tasks at hand.

Graphics can be used to also make the website more user friendly. Graphics can be used in either the form JPEG or GIF. These images can show many different pictures that can represent your topic as well as cartoons that engage children. This also helps with children's visual intelligence

Videos can be used to show a movie on the webpage. Once again this is engaging and makes the website user friendly. Although the movies are always the best quality bue can provide great information. This combines visual and audio intelligences. When used properly videos can be very effective.

Overall multimedia is very important to use to make your website an effective website

Wikis

Wikis is a very interesting thing. What it does is allows other people to add or edit content to the webpage. Multiple people could state facts or opinions on a single website. One example of this is wikipedia which is an online encyclopedia.

This can be used in many forms in the classroom. You can have your students make a vocabulary list with definitions. Each student could add on x amount of vocabulary words and their definition. You will get an extensive class vocab list in which everyone has participated in. You can also put up a word problem in parts and have different people solve each part. This way everyone can see what you added. Thirdly you can have a group story and have each student add a piece of the story on the wiki.

Before I read about this I have always heard of wikis but never had any clue what it was. Now that I know what it is I think I will use it in my classroom as a group assignment.

Factors that will impact my curriculum web

There are many different factors that will impact my curriculum web. One big factor is whether or not all my studentd have access to a computer. If they do not then they will not be able to access the website. Next I mist also see if my students have internet access. I also must see if my school has intenrnet access. If I want my students to access my website in school then I must make sure that I have accessibility to computers with internet access.

The next thing I must put into factor is whether or not the curriculum web works properly. If it does not work properly then the students won't be able to complete the work. also I must make sure that the curriculum web is easy to access and navigate. If I have any difficulties with it you bet my students will as well.

There are many factors to consider when creating a curriculum web, and you must take them all into account before you use it with your students.

Podcasts

Last week we learned of a new idea that involves the internet and could be useful in the classroom. This was podcasts. I personally have never used a podcast before but found it very interesting to learn about them. Podcast stands for "ipod + broadcast". You can podcast through audio, visual, or both.

I think that this can be a very useful thing to use in the classroom. If a student missed a lot of classes and needs to catch up, he/she can just listen to a podcast while the teacher works with the rest of the class. The podcast must be interesting and engaging for the student to learn. This also helps visual and audio learners.As a fun project you can also have students make an educational podcast and present it to the class.

Some downsides of this is that podcasts are not always factually correct. Also it might take a lot of time to find one that is not only factually correct but also fun to watch and easy to understand. Also assigning podcasts as projects could results in a moss of class management since many students might fool around with the idea.

For me I might use this idea in the future for my students. That is if I have any time to really research a good podcast to use.