Post #8

For my power point #2 I did a version of the jeopardy game. This was very simple in creation but time consuming. As far as the concept of writing, there is not much to critique because the slides consisted of simple questions followed by one or two word answers. The structure was very simple but repeated throughout to create unity, and the spelling and grammar usage was correct throughout the questions. The writing level was simple as the power point was made for elementary school students. As far as navigation each page had its own bubble making sure the player of the game navigated correctly to the next page whether it was to the answer:

or back to the game board:

Throughout these two slides, it is also apparent that I stayed constant with the font, font color, shape for links, and link writing and color. I used the same consistent pattern throughout the slides, uniting them together. One difference was that I typed the answers in a bigger font to take up more room, while the questions I typed smaller, because they normally were followed with a picture. The jeopardy game was well developed in my opinion and flowed throughout the game board making it logical and easy to follow.

Peripherals will be of imporatance and put to good usage in my class. Nowadays printers are almost a necessity and they will be put to good usage in my class, whether getting students to print out their stories they created or their test result, or information about their book or projects we area working on. Printers will be of utmost importance in working with a technologically influenced classroom. Scanners will be helpful to me as far as writing notes and being able to project them to the class or other work I did, or other students have done, the scanner will make it easier to show to the classroom. All of the peripherals will help ease the work of making multiple copies or having to write something multiple times, because it can be printed or shown in front of the class. Projectors have always been vital to the classroom and I would love to make use of that, but in todays times with the introduction of SMARTboards I think that it will become much easier to use other versions of technology. SMARTboards are the new wave of the future and will engage students in working on the boards while at the same time teaching the other students. The SMARTboards are the best example of how I plan to join the scanner, printer, and projector in one smartboard while being able to use that with the computer. SMARTboards will be used with computer based technologies. SMARTboards will be of great usage in elementary school keeping the students actively involved with hands on activities.

We continued working on power point in the last week. I have learned more about power point. I think the best tools I used surround hyperlinking. I was able to make games, such as jeopardy and i learned how to make a story with my own illustrations. For elementary school students, all of the things about power point we have been learning will be of usage because they will help entertain the kids and can become hands on. I made a jeopardy power point about animals which was easy, and was made for elementary students and would keep them engaged in a game, while learning and reviewing at the same times. I learned how to encorporate sounds and moving graphics. Overall everything I have learned about power points in the last week will help me to enhance my teaching, and help keep the students engaged throughout my powerpoints. Incorporating the animations, sounds, and hyper linking will help me create games, and more interesting power points. With education relying more on technology, learning how to keep my powerpoints up beat will help keep my students engaged.

Post #7

As far as using presentation software in the classroom, the biggest advantage is soemthing to look it. Software presentation adds graphics, animations and uses different colors and fonts to attract attention. I think software presentation is the best aid in the classroom. Software presentation adds and benefits lectures. Lecturing is the typical way of teaching that many teachers use, but it can be incredibly boring, adding software presentations such as powerpoint peak some more interest and can add appeal and other exciting features. Disadvantages are when teachers rely solely on the powerpoint and say exactly what they put on the powerpoint or software presentation they used. Replacing lectures with software presentations will serve no purpose if what is being said is directly on the presentation besides helping students read what you are going to say. Software presentations should have some animations or different colors or fonts or images to keep students attention.

The knowledge dimension spans across Bloom's Taxonomy. To make a plan I would make use of each dimension; Remember- Make a flowchart on how languages were formulated from other existing languages. Understand- expand on where each language originated, how it was changed and examples, beginning with the first language and spawning to the last created. Apply-I would then create a flowchart on inspiration and add images to make it more appealing and make sure it remained in the logical order. Analyze- Get students to look up information about languages and see if they find anything controversial or problems with languages that have occured throughout the years Evaluate- address any controversy found surrounding language creation or any new information found by students and see if it can be incorporated into the flowchart Create- finalize the project, inspiration would be the best for the flowchart and have an illustration to help explain and show to students how languages came about, illustrating the fact that many things can come from one idea, which could then lead into an essay or paper about students creating something and having multiple other things come about as a result.

We have previously talked about copyrighting but to me that is of interest because so many websites can lead students or teachers to copyright. Educational technology has been of huge success and of advantage to the learning process, with tools and information avaliable that would have not been before. Educational techology allows people from all over the world to access information from other parts of the world within minutes. It gives firsthand accounts from other countries or perspectives that help enrich education. Educational technology does face problems when it comes to teaching. Teachers can use information from the web, but reproducing it without citing can cause teachers to have to pay fines or worse. Copyrighting has become a problem within schools with the advent of computers and the usage in schools. Students can use information from online web sources in their papers and obtain f's or worse repercussions from copyrighting. While using technology in education is enriching it also allows many problems that could occur. Students can benefit but can also be opened up to many harmful realities of using the internet.

Post #6

As far as web 2.0 technologies go, I think they are useful in certain areas of schooling. I plan to teach elementary school and I do not see much use of blogs or wiki spaces for the younger children. In high school I see the most possibility for usage. High School students can compile on work projects together through wiki spaces, able to edit, message and see each others work offering comments on what to adjust through the wiki space itself. The wiki space would also be helpful to identify students who really deserve the grade, showing each persons contributions. Like I said, I do not plan on using web 2.0 technologies such as wiki space, because I just do not think it is very age appropriate for elementary school. The only thing I might take advantage of is the blogs, as far as blogging and communicating with other teachers and being able to share ideas.


Throughout school, when Wikipedia became popular all of my teachers cautioned against it. Our teachers basically made us use other sources besides Wikipedia, and clearly stated against using Wikipedia at all. Some teachers said we could look at Wikipedia for ideas, but never were we allowed to use it as a source. Basically I know that Wikipedia has some useful information but it also has its fair share of bogus information that could mislead students. As an elementary school teacher I do not plan on having to deal with any issues of Wikipedia because there will be no use of it that early. Overall I agree with my teachers, it is not a good learning source and I will stray my students away from it if necessary.

The past week we learned about the programs of wiki space. This would be more helpful for me if I taught the higher grades. I cannot say I plan on making use of this for my students, because I would prefer to leave the computer almost completely out of my lesson plan and focus on basics and hands on material for the kids at that young and impressionable age. They will deal with computers enough as they get older so I would prefer not to make use of any of the web 2.0 technologies. I will probably make use of blogging, if not with my students, using it as a tool to communicate with other teachers. The blogs will be beneficial to collaborate and work with other teachers. This class keeps opening my eyes as to all tricks of many of the things I have encountered with technology.

Shakespeare Quiz #2