Personal Technology Project

For my personal technology project I chose to do a WebQuest. WebQuests are a creative way to have students do projects and search for things on the Internet. Although I enjoyed putting my Webqust together; it was time consuming to do. It is not hard to put together; there are step by step instructions. It just takes time. Along with putting together a webquest I also did a lesson plan that goes along with it. Overall I really enjoyed this activity. I think that using a Webquest in a classroom setting can get students more excited about doing assignments.

WebQuest, part II

So I'm doing a WebQuest for my personal learning technology. I was really nervous at first to be working with a technology that I've never used before. But WebQuest is pretty user friendly. First, if you're confused or lost on anything it has tutorials on youtube that can walk you through the basics. It also gives you a lot of info. about WebQuests even before you sign up for one; which is nice to see what it's really like before you get one yourself. Plus after you get a WebQuest it gives you a 5 step process on how to make your own WebQuest. It is a pretty cool technology that allows students to use the Internet as a way to explore and make an assignment more interesting. Plus WebQuest are totally user friendly for the teacher putting it together for their students. I'm excited about putting my WebQuest together, and seeing what the finished product will look like.

Personal Technology Project

For my Personal Technology Project I have decided to do a webquest page for a class. I think this technology will be realivent to me as a teacher later down the road. I'm hoping to make a webquest page on a english based topic. I haven't narrowed my topic yet, but I'm debating between a literary work, like Great Expectations, or some sort of grammer page. I'm excited to get to explore this tool, and hopefully incorporate it into my knowledge of technologies that can be used in the classroom. I'm a little nervous about this project because I'm not great with technology. But I'm willing to learn new tools and hopefully improve my tehcnology skills. I think that making a webquest will be a great way to have an interactive technology for my students to use.

Class Website

I just finished my class website. I ran into a few problems while trying to put the whole thing together. My biggest problem was figuring out how to embed different things. The first thing that I had trouble embedding was a youtube video. Instead of using the embed gadget I went under the insert tab and went down to the subheading titled video. From there it let me just embed a youtube video thru the url. The other thing I had a problem with embedding was from slideshare . It turned out that the default embed code on the page for my powerpoint was not correct. So Danny helped me find another embed code for the same powerpoint. Doing this website has been difficult, but will be a great tool to use as a teacher

Google docs

I know that google docs is not a new thing to most people, but it is new to me. I've been playing with all the different things that google has: like presentations, sites, etc; and google docs has stood out to me this past week. I think this can be a really good collaborative tool that students can use when studying for tests. All that needs to happen is someone (student or teacher) needs to put the study guide on a google doc, and everyone can fill in the answers collaboratively. This is a good thing to use if a student has missed a day or just doesn't understand a concept. It is a good way for peers to help one another out for studying for tests.

Latest Technology I've discovered

So my husband is really into all the lastest mac stuff out there and he showed me something this past week that I thought was really cool. It's called the Ipad; basically it's a beefed up version of th iphone mixed with a computer. It is about a ten inch touch panel screen. It gives you the ability to buy books and read them straight from the ipad; which is perfect for teaching in the class room. It could also be really good for college students becasue it will give everyone the opportunity to just buy their books electronically using this as a tool. And hopefully the prices for text books will be cheaper than at the book store. This seems like a really good resource for college aged people.