Week 10

In the article, Acquisition of Information Online: Knowledge, Navigation and Learning Outcomes discussed the topic of an investigation that examined the relationship between prior knowledge and the World Wide Web browsing outcomes within the context of a genetic website. I personally found the studies findings to be interesting. The overall outcome of this study found that readers who were in the treatment group were engaged in prereading activities containing information designed to increase their prior knowledge. This group had significantly higher learning outcome scores than students in the control group. This investigation shows us that prereading assignments, if used correctly are very essential for students to use before beginning an assignment on the World Wide Web.

In the article, Becoming Literature in the technological age: New responsibilities and tools for teachers discuss the topic of literacy in this technological age as well as exploring a variety of tools available for educators and students. I found this article to be very helpful in the technology field when assigning a web-based assignment for students. I think Flaming Text will definitely come in handy in the future when assigning online projects for myself as a teacher as well as the students. This website seems very useful and easy to use to complete projects for the students. Overall, I really learned a lot from this article and I know I will find it to be very useful in the future.

Week 9

In the article, A Good Teaching Technique: WebQuests describes the new teaching tool WebQuest. The author provides detailed information about the structure of good WebQuests. The author also includes the strengths and weaknesses along with the challenges teachers or administrators might face. I felt this was a very beneficial article because it included not only the strengths of WebQuest, but also the weaknesses of WebQuest.

In the article, “I Guess It Was Pretty Fun” Using WebQuests in the Middle School Classroom focuses on ten suggestions for teachers to take into account when assigning an assignment using WebQuest. I liked how the article touched upon collaboration. Especially in today’s society students do not get to collaborate much outside the classroom because of all the electronic games there are out on the market. Overall, I feel that WebQuest is a fun, great way for students to collaborate and work together as teams do to complete a project.

Week 8

In the article, Evaluating the Importance of Common Components in School-Based Websites: Frequently of Appearance and Stakeholders’ Judges Value was an interesting study. Only eight of the seventy schools that were included in the study incorporated more than 50% of the recommended features in their site. I found this to be a very interesting statistic because it shows me that schools are not going out of their way to improve their site. The study also indicates that parents and students appear to disagree about specific types of data that are useful in a website. It is very common for parents and students to disagree. For example parents and students disagree on types of TV shows that students should not watch or video games that students should not be playing. Therefore, I do not find this statement to be out of the ordinary.

In the article, Using Websites Wisely consisted of ways to assist teachers to help students work online in a meaningful way. I found the article to be very helpful when assigning online work to students. The article also lists websites to use to help students learn. Overall, I feel this article had a lot of useful knowledge.

In the article, Making the Most of Your Class Website consisted of different types of websites you can use depending on your purpose for the classroom website. I never realized that there were different types of websites teachers could set up. I found this article to be very useful because I do plan on setting up a classroom website when I become a teacher. The article assisted me with determining the purpose of my classroom website. As well as to take into consideration that all students have sufficient access to the Internet and are computer savvy to do web based work. Overall, I feel this article will be useful to me when setting up my classroom website.

In the article, Elementary Classroom Web Sites: Support For Literacy Within and Beyond the Classroom consisted of a study based on how elementary classroom Web sites support children’s literacy. I found the Literature-Based Approach section to be very interesting. This approach was the least supported instructional approach, with 35% of Web sites included a feature regarding children’s literature. Only 32% of Web sites featured a link to children’s book authors. I find this to be very interesting because in literature book authors are very important as well as the instructional approach. Therefore, I found this article to be very knowledgeable regarding classroom Web sites.

Week 7

Chapter seven, Fun with Flickr is about a website where you can upload digital photos or videos that you take from a fieldtrip or throughout the day in the classroom. You can then share them on the web with parents and other community members. Flickr is free as long as you do not publish more than two 500MB videos a month and more than 100MB photos a month. Otherwise you have to create an account, which is $24.95 a year. By having an account it gives you unlimited photo and video uploads, unlimited storage ability, and unlimited viewing ability. Another great thing about Flickr is the privacy settings. When posting a picture you can make the comments that are posted under the picture private so only people you want to see them can see them. I also liked the idea that each photo that gets uploaded to Flickr can have “tags” or keywords associated with it by the publisher, and those tags are then searchable around the world. It is another great way for people to connect with others from around the world.

In the article, Photostreams to the People consisted of information about Flickr. According to Peggy Garvin, “Flickr began to develop The Commons when the Library of Congress proposed using the popular site to expose more people to its photo collections and to experiment with Web 2.0 interactivity.” I found this fact to be very knowledgeable in how Flickr was developed. I found the section on Social Media and Public Institutions to be very interesting and controversial. According to Peggy Garvin, “the 2009 CIL panelists each judged their participation as a success, citing the positive feedback from the public and the press and the rewards of richer contacts with their users.” I think this is a great positive reinforcement for teachers to know when deciding if they want to use Flickr in their classroom.

In the article, The Unexplored Promise of Visual Literacy in American Classrooms I enjoyed reading. According to Larry Myatt, “now, more than ever, we need to connect the dots and make way for the powerful visual thinking lying dormant within our classrooms to surface in order to make sure our young people have the chance they deserve to pass the hurdles we put in their way.” This is so true because according to Larry Myatt, “the classrooms are likely to have anywhere from 4 to 10 students with special needs, ranging from those who require minor accommodations to others who need teachers to make substantial adjustments to their planning, instructional materials, and assessments.” By implementing new technology in the classroom I feel it will help students learn better academically through technology based interventions, especially the students with a learning disability.

Week 6

Chapter eight, Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, and Live Streaming had a lot of valuable information. One interesting fact that I learned about podcasting is that most podcasters are just your average people with ideas they want to share. Using podcast in the classroom could be very beneficial to the students. I liked the idea of Radio For Kids, By Kids. Each show has its own host, theme, and unique segments. I feel this could really get the students involved and could be an exciting new way for children to produce what they learn. Screencasting is another way to support materials when teaching complex skills on the computer. I find screencasting to be very interesting. I think this could be an essential tool in a classroom for any age level.

In the article Digital Language Experience Approach: Using Digital Photographs and Software as a Language Experience Approach Innovation was about a case study that took place in a kindergarten classroom. The article researched three little girls who come from different backgrounds. The case study explored young children with different levels of literacy learning when a Language Experience Approach is enhanced with digital photography and creativity software. Savannah, a young girl of middle literacy abilities from a middle-class white family, Tien-Tien, a young girl of Asian descent with high literacy abilities, and India, a young girl of African American race all participated in the study. The study indicates that children with varying literacy abilities have unique opportunities for literacy development with digital photography and creativity software. It is also important to note that adults play an important role in D-LEA activities as facilitators who provide effective activities by modeling the use of technology tools. Therefore, I found this case study to be very interesting in the fact that photography in the classroom and play a positive role in a child’s literacy learning ability.

In the article, The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling had a lot of useful information. Digital storytelling “revolves around the idea of combining the art of telling stories of digital multimedia, such as images, audio, and video.” (Robin, Bernard) Digital storytelling can be used in digital literacy, global literacy, technology literacy, visual literacy, and information literacy. In these areas of technology students can improve their software skills that can combine a variety of multimedia tools including working with text, still images, audio, video, and Web publishing. Therefore, when students use digital storytelling they increase their full complements of literacy skills, including: research skills, organizational skills, technology skills, presentation skills, interview skills, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, and assessment skills.

In the article, Podcasting in the Classroom:A Sound Success was a very interesting article about the use of podcasts. Podcasting “could be an important tool for delivering and receiving information” according to Johanna Riddle. The initial focus of podcasts was delivery of content. According to Johanna Riddle, “it wasn’t long before till the K-12 community realized the advantages of student podcasting in the classroom. The process is a nexus for traditional and 21st- century literacies, requiring discipline-based research, reading, and writing. Podcast also calls for editing, oral reading, and presentation skills.” (Riddle P. 24) Therefore, I think podcast can be used in a variety of ways throughout the classroom to enhance students learning skills and abilities.