4. tips and tricks to navigate the web

http://www.cpalms.org/Public/PreviewStandard/Preview/1944 

·       Standard: SC.912.L.14.1- “Describe the scientific theory of cells (cell theory) and relate the history of its discovery to the process of science.”

·       http://www.cellsalive.com/puzzles/crosswords/organelle1.htm

·       Educational Games

·       I would use this website to teach cell structure to my students in a fun educational way! It is an interactive site in which the students have to type out cell parts based on hints given. Studying isn’t very fun for most students in middle school but I feel like with this game they will enjoy learning about cell and cell structure a little more.

            I think that the internet is an extremely valuable tool in student research and I highly recommend it. Whenever a student doesn’t understand the meaning of a word they can easily look it up. When a student needs information about a historical person, it’s much easier to just type in the name. Not only does the internet give you results fast, it gives you many options as well. One problem with the internet is that it’s not always accurate. When you are researching something scientific, you have to make sure your sources are credible. Another huge problem students have with the internet is plagiarism. When the answers are in front of them, a lot of the students will just copy and paste instead of rephrasing in their own words. I think it is very important to be able to use the internet but I also don’t want my students depending on it, so I would teach them how to get their information from a library too.

           When I search for information on the internet the number one thing I do is make sure my information is credible. I look for sites that end in .edu, and .gov because I know they are educational and government sites, and I use a lot of the websites through my school website. Also, sites in which you can change information in the article (such as Wikipedia) I know are not credible sources because anyone can change the content. Listening to the podcast I realized that I do a lot of the same things talked about; I look at the content, I make sure the spelling is correct, and usually when a site is biased it is based on opinion. One thing I didn’t pay attention to is ads. I never thought that they were a problem because I usually just ignore them. I think it is important to teach my students to look out for them.

           I learned a few new skills from working on the Web Hunt assignment. There are a lot of tips and tricks you can do to specify your search results. For example, if you want to search a certain time period you would type out “date…end date” and fill it in with the corresponding dates you wish to find out. Also I learned that when you put things in quotations it searches for direct quotes within the quotations. Another one of my new favorite tips is being able to exclude sites with the “-“sign before the site you don’t want to pop up. This assignment helped me realize I can more easily find what I need with a few tricks.

1.  Find a free website maker that students could use to create their own website
2.   Find a credible medical website in which students can type in symptoms and find out what disease relates to it.

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3. the 101 of teaching with technology

I wasn’t there when the class explored Edmodo and I have never used it before so I don’t really know much about it. Then I decided to look around the site myself and honestly, I’m kind of confused. I think it’s similar to blackboard because the teachers use it to communicate with their students, but it is also similar to twitter and Facebook from just looking at the set up. To me, it seems like a bunch of things going on all at once. I can see how it would be useful once I understand how to use it. With all the confusion there was one thing that was super easy to understand and that was the notification tab; it tells you what you need to do and when and it’s very clear. All in all, I would definitely like to explore Edmodo some more because while confusing, it was also very creative. If you’d like to check it out, click on this link; edmodo. 

If I were to become a teacher, there are many ways technology would play a role in my classroom. I would most likely be teaching high school, juniors and seniors because I would be able to more likely use technology in more ways with an older age group. While I attended high school, we had a website in which we could check our grades at any time. I definitely would use this with my students, it helps keep them on track and if they are missing an assignment they can immediately talk to the teacher. Another tool I would love to incorporate would be discussion boards. This offers the opportunity for my students to communicate with one another and the teachers as well. If a student has a question about an assignment, or maybe even just wants to share their opinion about a topic, they can post about it on the discussion board. My students would also have a site in which their assignments get posted and where they would turn in their work electronically, I think this is much easier to communicate and it helps save unnecessary paper use. While using the internet, it is important to teach my students about digital citizenship. There many guidelines in which to follow and I would address all the concepts. My students would need to understand how to navigate the web, but one of the most important guidelines to me is “netiquette.” Students must be polite and respectful when using the web, especially towards others. It would be a huge consequence if a student participated in “cyber-bullying” because saying hurtful things over the internet is never okay. Not revealing personal information is also so very important, and plagiarism is an absolute no.

I very much enjoyed working on the Newsletter Design Assignment. I learned how to use columns in a word document, which I never have done before. It also let me show my creative side! I enjoyed being able to use word art and altering it to the way I wanted. Making the newsletter is showing me new and cool ways Microsoft Word can be used.

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Currently being a student, I use Microsoft word every day. I take almost all my notes on MS, I write essays, presentations and speeches to name a few. A lot of my teachers require weekly essays so I am always writing using MS. I see teachers using MS all the time too; they write up their lesson plans on it, syllabuses and instructions for a project or assignment. If I were a teacher, I would probably use Microsoft word the same way my teachers did. I think by having typed up directions, it makes it easier for the student to understand, and giving handouts is important too. By handing out typed instructions for a project or assignment the students will more easily be able to stay on track. I would ask my students to type up their assignments on MS too because typed essays and such are much easier to read than written work. Also, it would be more organized.

              I don’t have much experience with copyright or fair use of materials. I have only used photos and information on the internet and I always make sure to cite my sources. If I were a teacher, I would make sure my students have a works cited page, giving full credit to the source in which they received their photo or information. I would teach my students how to cite their material properly. In the ISTE Teacher Standard 1 it talks a bit more about the copyright laws.

              Twitter is a daily part of my life. I have had a twitter for just a little bit over a year now so I am very comfortable with it. I mostly use twitter to share my thoughts with my friends or retweet funny videos. I think it’s a great idea to use twitter in the classroom; it helps us stay connected! I think I will use twitter in a more professional way when I’m older to stay linked with my clients and employees.