Web tools

I really enjoyed this assignment. It is amazing how I've been through five years of college, in an education program and I have never heard of any of these sites till now. I have used the rubric generator, but it was not the one we were assigned, in my opinion with rubric generators if you have used one you have used them all.

I really liked the word cloud creation. That would be a great way for students to list things they expect out of the class or goals and then to post them in the class to always be reminded. It is also a fun activity that they can do with their vocabulary words, beside the dual writing them over and over ritual. This ties in with: Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments ( making it personal for the student) and also with Model digital age work and learning (innovative technology)

The story bird was neat to me, because teachers often want students to create their own stories and some may not have artistic talent or access to word programs, but if they are using school computers this is a free EASY way for them to create their own story. The only trouble I had was locating pictures that I wanted to use, but I have a feeling if I played with it a bit more I would get the hang of it. This is just like the word cloud it provides a personal experience for the student, encourages creativity ( Facilitate and Inspire student learning and creativity)

Trackstar..where have you been my whole life! This site is amazing. It is a little "Tech Savvy" but the layout is very basic, you just have to take the time to do it. I think it would be neat if maybe we could be provided with a class list of everyone's trackstar so that as future teachers we have this great tool to reference.

Please click on the links to go to the selected material

Rubric https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6YntfIp5iZeZVo4WFp0c1ZkTXM
Word Cloud https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6YntfIp5iZeQWY0dEtLb0c5LUE
Story http://storybird.com/books/zazzys-veggies/
Trackstar http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/ts/viewTrackMembersFrames.do?org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN=0d546b428c80afd46780f217b117b997&number=444449&password=

Turnitin/Plagiarism

First off let me say, being a college kid I have heard the plagiarism spill enough times that I can say it in my sleep. Moral of the story...DO NOT COPY AND PASTE.

I have used turnitin before this class, we used it in high school and I use it for another class here at USM. For teachers to be able to use turnitin and use it easily they must be familiar with this type of technology/website. I liked the idea of us doing a "copy and paste paper" to see how it looks on turnitin.com and how the report reads. I have never seen a turnitin report before, so that was interesting to see how to labels everything and links it to the source.

Every student at one time or another has plagiarized something. It is hard to avoid sometimes for two reasons. One, it is difficult to reword some facts and figures and two, siting sources is such a format pain that some students become frustrated over the fact every time they do source that it is always wrong. I fall into the second group. Siting, well any type of grammatical formatting, is my weakness. As a teacher told me in community college, "we are going to get past all these run on sentences even if it kills us both" But! Thanks to the wonders of Microsoft word, siting is a breeze now, still never fails i get something wrong.

All of this ties in with teachers promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility to their students in the classroom. Because, if we as teachers do not teach the difference between right and wrong (original work or stolen work) students will lack the ethics of how to use technology appropriately.


To view my paper about plagiarism please click the link below

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6YntfIp5iZeMTB1Nzh1QTJUdGs

Concept Maps

This wasn't my first time to use Inspiration or to create concept maps online. I had exposure to Inspiration through  SPED class I took  online that required us to create so many concept maps based on chapter topics. I will admit it was the first time i actually used almost all of the tools on inspiration and I found it really neat that you can add notes to each topic or sub topic. I also liked how we learned that you can write on the arrows and add some what directions to what is being learned.

Concept maps are a create way to introduce a topic and discover what your students already know and then it is an excellent way to review at the end of a class or lesson to see what you students have learned and maybe what they are struggling with. Students can easily create concept maps to use as a study tool or to peer teach with during group projects.

Using inspiration allows teachers to integrate technology into the class based on a simple task such as concept mapping, which students already know how to do. This provide chances for students who  may have poor motor skills or lack artistic talent to express what they know in a manner they are comfortable with. It also allows students, how might not have access to technology at home, to gain experience using a new software and to expand there knowledge on certain topics being taught in the class.

I know this blog is late, but i completely forgot we were suppose to be even blogging about the class and just looked at the calendar and it dawned on me...hopefully this is what we are suppose to do.

Intros

Hey my name is Melinda Hudson and I am a fifth year senior...the end is in sight!! I will be student teaching in the spring. I am a Dual Major (El. Ed and SPED) and I have loved every second of it. I am originally from Starkville and the first chance I got to get away from that "other college town" I took it! I'm a BIG football fan. I love my Golden Eagles but I am a Bama girl by heart RTR!! I am in the class because it is required but I also want to learn about using smart boards in the class and any other technology to use in the SPED class. I have done many blogs before so this is nothing new to me. 

I am a nerd...I love Doctor Who, anything science fiction, and well of course anything Disney! I can play 7 different instruments and I always have music on in some shape form or fashion. 

 

Purpose of a blog-folio is to effectively be able to reflect and use technology at the same time and also be able to share with your peers.