Technology+Resources

Wordle - [|www.wordle.net] Image Chef - [|www.imagechef.com] Glogster- [] Glogster is a fun resource that allows students and teachers to create virtual posters. The students can select fun clip art, video clips, and animation. This could be used in all subject areas to assist students in presentations, or to make a lecture more interesting for the students. -Jessica King Bubbl - [|www.bubbl.us] Bubbl is a tool that can be used for brainstorming and is a way to organize ones thoughts. I thought this was a really neat tool to be able to use for free. This would be useful in almost any type of classroom. This would be a very helpful tool for the students who do not know how to brainstorm or for anyone who has trouble organizing their thoughts. For the students who are just being introduced to writing papers, this would definitely be something that they should be introduced to. This would be a good thing to use for the students who are more visual learner so they can see how their paper would map out. -Anna Wilhelmus TeacherTube - [|www.teachertube.com] Similar to the popular YouTube, TeacherTube's goal is "to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos." This website includes appropriate, fun, and helpful videos that can be shared with a class to give them another way to look at the lesson being taught. Since a lot of students are familiar with videos, television, and the youtube community they will be able to related better to this type of material used in the classroom. It will bring what they know best into a classroom. It's also great because some teachers know that youtube has inappropriate videos uploaded that may make them not want to use it in the classroom, but teachertube is made specifically for teaching and instructional use. - Allison Schlau

Blogger- [] Blogger is a fun tool to use in the classroom, by both teachers and students alike. It is a free website that allows people to create their own blogs. The website is a simple one, where students can easily create a blog in a formal layout and discuss the issues of a subject. I would definitely use this in my classroom when I become a teacher. As a teacher, I would assign homework problems to do overnight. When the students are home doing their work, they may have trouble with a specific problem. If this happens, students can go blog about a specific difficulty they had with the problem set and other students can view it. The students would be able to comment on the person's blog and help them out with the problem. I as the teacher would regulate everyone's blogs to make sure everyone is participating and at least checking or updating their blogs once a week. I think the use of blogs in a classroom would be a really good idea because all of the students can share what they are feeling about the class and the things they are learning. Brooke Purvis

Video and Podcasting- www.youtube.com You Tube is very useful for classrooms for many reasons. You Tube can be used by anyone with internet access without having to register or log in. Any student can use it for help as well as any teacher can use it in his/her classroom. You Tube has many videos ranging from how-to videos, educational videos, and just fun entertaining videos. It can be very useful in a classroom because a teacher can just get online and look up a video to go along with his/her lesson and present it to her students. Also, teachers can assign a You Tube video to watch later for homework and have the students comment on the video or have them discuss it the next day in class. Another advantage of using You Tube it has many demonstrative and how-to videos available to be shown in the classroom. There are how-to videos on almost anything these days. For instance, there is about a forty second video on how to use UC blackboard and how to submit your homework through blackboard. This is very useful because a teacher can just show this to their students instead of taking a lot of time explaining it themselves. Also, if students forget what their teacher said about how to use blackboard, they can go on You Tube and watch the video. Lindsay Black

Collaboration - Smartboards Smartboards are very popular in schools nowadays. Just from observing at an elementary school I realize how important Smartboards are for the students every day learning. They can incorporate the other technologies into the classroom as well. As a teacher I would be able to show videos to my students in as little as a few clicks of the mouse. I would also be able to create learning games to help them with each subject. For example, a teacher I was observing was teaching her students about multiplication. So she made up a baseball game with multiplication problems. She split the class up into three teams and each team had a turn to do as many problems as they could in 10 minutes. But it was like baseball in the sense that they had three strikes. Once they missed three problems they were done with the game. I think this really helped them concentrate on the problem because they did not want a strike. There are a large number of things teachers can accomplish with a Smartboard. Younger students respond well with this device because they see it as a game more than schoolwork. I think the most important thing in teaching is keeping your students interested and you can not keep younger students interested by sitting in a chair all day. You need to have them move around and interact with their other classmates. The other good thing about Smartboard is that if a student wants to do one of the activities from class at home, then they will have the website address right in front of them. They will also already know how the game works, so parents will not have to explain everything to them. I think this is a very useful technology and hopefully I will have a chance to use one for my students. Kelly Newman

Collaboration: http://www.teachervision.fen.com Technology Resources for Teachers is a basic computer skills program that help with using computer word processors for teachers, finding out how to create PowerPoint presentations, understanding the difference between a podcast and a blog, researching interesting science projects online, using the computer to extend a literature activity and other fascinating activities to integrate your students. This website is used for Internet research tips, Internet safety resources, lessons, and worksheets to help integrate technology across the curriculum. This website also offers pre-made lessons plans along with homework problems that can be used as examples for the class. The is a broad range in subjects offered throughout this web-page, for example math, science, English, social studies and religion all have their own folders which contain cutouts and worksheets. In grade school, my science teacher used this website to illustrate how a frog is dissected, (without it being to gory), then had us take quizzes following the lesson plan. Amanda Graber

Blogs and Blogging: [|www.blogger.com] or [|www.wordpress.org] Blogging has become an increasingly popular tool over the years, and can be very useful in the classroom. I just recently became familiar with the idea of creating blogs; I enrolled in an English class and the professor integrated many technological aspects to the course. All students were asked to create a blog and frequently check posts, comments, and questions added to the blog. My experience in this class was very positive. Blogger and Wordpress are just two examples of sites that provide the tools to create and manage blogs at no cost. If I were an educator in a classroom with older children, I would definitely take advantage of the opportunity to use these blogging tools. For instance, I would help the students create a new blog and familiarize them with the options and settings. I would then assign readings and other assignments in class, and ask the students to post their responses on their blogs, where I can manage and easily view their comments and posts. Blogging would make assigning homework much more convenient and I could easily keep up with the students' progess. Amanda Schwarz

Presentation Tools- PowerPoints: PowerPoint is a popular tool in presenting ideas in the classroom. This tool is not only used by teachers, but also students. In high school, I had experience using PowerPoint every time I was assigned a student presentation. It is very handy when trying to inform and can be creative with the different designs, transitions, photos, and more that can be included, making it more intriguing for the audience. Paige Ellis

Video & Podcasting

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YouTube is a great resource for both students and teachers. Teachers can post videos that they made themselves on YouTube to assist their students with projects that are to be completed at home. Also, teachers can suggest videos for their students to check out, or even play them on a projector for the whole class to see. Videos can sometimes better explain a subject or how to do a specific task than a teacher can. YouTube is also nice because it can be seen at any hour of the day and an infinite amount of times. This can be beneficial to students who learn by repetition. Those students can view the video, whether made or recommended by the teacher, as many times as they need to. Personally, I would use YouTube as a resource for both students and parents. If a child needed extra guidance from home, a video could be made to teach the parents about the project, who then in turn can help the child. YouTube can be beneficial if used properly. Rachel Andrews=====

Collaboration- Smartboards Smartboards are a popular tool in classrooms. They are very helpful for teachers because they are a lot more interactive than just writing on a regular whiteboard. They can show web pages and videos. Smartboards can be used for almost everything the teacher needs to do to teach their students.Most of my classes since middle school have had smartboards and it makes it so much easier for the teachers because they can use one tool for many different things like either watching a movie or giving a lecture. Younger students will also be much more engaged in what they are learning with a smartboard. - Olivia Kutzleb

Skype www.skype.com Skype is a tool that allows you to make phone calls over the internet via webcam. It is free to downoad, and calls to another Skype user are free. This could be a very useful took in the classroom. Teachers could use Skype to video conference other classrooms, interview a guest speaker who could not physically come into the classroom, and calls can even be made to other countries. Using Skype in the classroom will give students an oppotunity to learn about topics outside of the classroom, without ever leaving their desks. Field trips are very costly, so by using the free Skype service, students are still able to gain knowledge somewhere other than a text book or within the walls of the school building. Skype is a great resource to use in the classroom because it offers students a new and exciting to view life outside of the classroom, without even have to leave to classroom.- Caitlin Winning

Instant Messaging: [|www.facebook.com] Facebook has this awesome feature where you can instant message your friends. This well help with learning and homework because you can IM a friend if you have a question. Since its online you can also look up in other windows web sites that you can share. This could also help with teacher and student communication. If the teacher feels comfortable enough to have a facebook page and add their students then the student could ask the teacher questions without the teacher giving away personal information like their phone number. -Natalie Asbury

[|www.youtube.com] You tube is an extremly popular and useful internet site which allows free uploading and sharing of information on the internet. There are not many limitations to what a person can upload, so as a teacher you have to be very aware of the content that may be included in certain videos. This could be achieved by viewing the information before you are in front of a class and having a link ready to go. I think the best part about youtube is that you can have your own playlist of videos for free and make an account. This helps keep you organized and you can compare different videos to share with the students. If you were a second grade teacher and wanted your students to gain a better understanding of a certain instrument or rhythem in a music unit, you could just pull up a video on youtube. Its that easy! - Kelsey Penquite
 * Video and Podcasting**

Video and Podcasting [|www.youtube.com] You yube is an extremely important tool for teachers and students to use in the classroom today. Even on the first day of this class, we were able to understand what a "wiki" was in a short yet entertaining amount of time. Although, you tube can be a distraction to students in their spare time, in the class room, the teacher can control what videos to show. The videos are free which is a plus, and also easily accessed. In one of my english classes, a teacher showed a 9 video segment that was only available on the internet. He made his own playlist, which anyone can do once they register and it ran very smoothly. Also you tube is a great way for students and teachers to keep up with current events. If you miss a news story, you can you tube "search" it and it will most likely come up. Furthermore, you can make your own you tube video. This could help students and teachers easily locate a video for a class assignment. --Megan Shaw

**Video and Podcasting** [|www.youtube.com] I think that you tube is a good tool for teachers because their is so much different material out there that a teacher can use. A teacher can find a video for almost any subject they are teaching and show it to the class. I think the best part of you tube is that most of the videos are under ten minutes so the class will stay interested whole time. I remember watching hour videos in class and seeing everyone around me fall asleep. Before you tube there was not much videos out there for teachers to use that was short and effective, but with you tube teachers have a huge resource of information that they can use in class. - Logan Reames PowerPoint Presentation Tools- PowerPoint tools are a very popular technology tool for both students and teachers in today's classroom, they help to clearly demonstrate important points of a topic or study. They are often very interactive and can be a good visual tool as well as provide audio and video and make the lesson that the teacher or student is trying to teach more inviting and more engaging to the listener. With power point the user has the chance to be very creative while also being able to design and present an idea effectively. - James Burroughs

**Skype**
[|www.skype.com] I have been using this technology for a long time now, but as a means of communication with my family back home. All you need is a PC and Internet connection on both ends and the service is free. You can talk all you want, for as long as you want. That’s fantastic! It even gets better with the addition of webcam and video conferencing. I have always wondered how the technology can be used in the classroom to enhance learning, as in the case of foreign language learning. An example would be to connect a classroom here to a classroom somewhere in France and let the students experience French or English firsthand. Before I know, Oprah started using it to have guests from all over the world appear on her show. It is an efficient low cost communication tool educators can take advantage of. Koffi Lamewona

Skype

I believe that one could use skype as a tool to broaden the horizons of students. Anything that exposes them to a lifestyle or opinion that is less local than the students around them will be helpful in their educational travels. Using Skype to video conference with other classrooms would be truly helpful: though I would find it most effective used for a longer period of time after students have created a project to present to the other students they correspond with. This would ensure an efficient use of time and help cut back on shyness.

Keenan Cooper Communication [|www.facebook.com] This social networking site could be very useful in the classroom. Teacher's can now create their own page for their classes which could aid in communication to the students about assignments or anything else that is important. It could also help student's keep in touch with their classmates, which could be helpful for group projects. Also, you can add links, photos, videos, etc, and the teacher could use that to give students the materials. Also, if the teacher wants a response, you can leave comments on links or notes. - Michelle Kim

Custom Search [|**http://tinyurl.com/29f3j4h**]

**Lindsay Black** **Rain forest Custom Search Engine** [|**http://tinyurl.com/2ejy4vu**]

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Graphing Calculator Lesson- Brooke Purvis
