Blog Post #7

As a future teacher I think that it would be beneficial to maintain a course web site for my students and their parents. I think that they are a very useful tool to remain in contact with your class. For instance, you may post all of the upcoming events, assignments, tests, and due dates for everything that will be going on in your class. It is helpful, especially at young ages, for parents to go online and check to see if their child has any homework to do. It serves as a great communication device for parents and teachers. It really helps the parents feel like they are more involved in class activities when they know what is going on. It is also beneficial for students that are absent; so they don’t fall behind they just have to go online and check to see what they missed. Even though a lot of time goes into creating a website and updating it regularly, I think that it is worth it. It can truly benefit students when their instruction and lectures are explained more and presented online so that they can access it from anywhere.

There are so many different Web 2.0 tools that are available for teachers to use. I have been fortunate enough to be exposed to many different ones during my educational history. One of the newest ones that I’ve recently been enjoying is Prezi. Its sort of like a powerpoint program but much more expansive. It is free for anyone that wants to set up a Prezi account. They can be used for any subject and can really help teach students different subjects in an interesting and fun way. I would definitely be using Prezi in my classroom.

I think that Web 2.0 tools are useful in K-12 education. Since every generation is more advanced than the last, it is important to stay relevant and on top of technology from an early age. Web 2.0 tools can really be applied to all subject areas, so it shouldn’t be too much of a concern for teachers to fit it into their lesson plans.   There were so many listed in the podcast but one of interest to me was Edmodo. For example, I think that Edmodo is a useful website for students. I used Edmodo in High School in my Civil Engineering Academy. It was a social media site that allowed you to post questions or “statuses” to your friends. It is a great tool for students.

From the last assignment “Web Evaluation” I learned a few new schools. For instance, I learned how to create a web assignment, and evaluate web sites. Before this past week, I had no idea how to do either. They were both relatively simple. Although, I did have trouble choosing a topic and finding resources to include in the web evaluation. But overall I enjoyed the assignment. Next time I will work on using a different search engine, and different key words when looking for resources. I think that that simple tweak will improve my web evaluation immensely.   I really enjoyed how when creating my web evaluation I could choose from so many different layouts for my table that I created. It really made the assignment more enjoyable when there was a pleasurable scheme of colors in the background. In the future I will perhaps use the web evaluation as an assignment for my students. It is a good tool for them when researching topics. I will definitely be using my new web site skills to create a site for my students and their parents.

These are the blogs that I responded to:

https://dt12b.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/post-6/comment-page-1/#comment-19

https://rachelsinclair4.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/blog-6/comment-page-1/#comment-21

Also, here are some screenshots of my Web Evaluation!