CEDO520 Class # 3 & 4

This has been an awesome class! I have learned so many new Web 2.0 tools that I can share with my staff this new school year. I'm amazed at the amount of information that I can use immediately. Many of these websites I will be linking to my district's LMC webpage. One of my main focuses this year will be teaching internet safety to students of all ages. The WebWise website provided great resources that I will be using in my instruction as well as sharing with staff and parents.

CEDO520 Class #2

This week I encountered many new websites that I will be sharing with my staff and students. NoodleTools is fabulous; the possibilities of this website are endless. There is virtually something for everyone on that site...from elementary to college level students. I'm also impressed with the success I've had with Google Alerts. I know it's been around for awhile, but I hadn't used it before this class and I'm so glad that I was introduced to it. What a great way to stay current on any type of topic. I'm looking forward to creating a website evaluation form as the one we have in our district is over 5 years old and it was on my to-do for this semester. The websites that discuss web eval are very good and I can see that they contain alot of info that will be useful on the new form that I create for my students.

CEDO520 Class #1

I can't believe the amount of information I have crammed into my brain over the last few months from these classes! I'm very excited about exploring even more educational technology websites from this class. Just the few links we've looked at for this first class have given me ideas for my students when they come back in a few weeks. The internet's "superhighway" really has turned into "information overload". It's no wonder our students feel lost when trying to search the internet...I feel that way myself...and I've spent years fine-tuning my researching skills. The trick is to pass those researching skills down to my students in a way that is relevant to them. Find something that is important to their lives and show them how the internet can help them locate information needed to succeed in their daily lives.

Look up for my cartoon from ToonDoos!

Technology Integration in Education

I have spent the past several months writing our district's technology plan. Many of our goals for the next three years of our plan are based on the NETS and the integration of technology into our curriculum. Much of the information I read in these first two chapters was addressed in my technology plan. I have spent the past year assisting the teachers in my district with technology integration as well as incorporating higher-order thinking skills (a.k.a. - 21st century skills). The resources found in the text are invaluable and in reviewing many of them, I am confident that I will be using and sharing them with my fellow teachers.

What have I learned in this class?

Everything I've learned in this class has been very relevant to my personal life and to my job as a Library Media Specialist. I've eased my fear of tearing into a computer. Also, I've learned alot about some of the great features I'd love to have when I win the lottery and build my perfect computer. The most relevant portion of the class for me was learning more about viruses. I've gotten them before and have them cause me much frustration about losing files and spending time having to reformat my hard drive. I also loved watching the Nerds movies. That may sound kind of strange, but I really learned alot about the history of the computer. So much so, that I actually shared some of what I learned with my students! They, too, were interested. Also, the research I did on the wireless components of a computer was extremely interesting. When I came out of the dial-up age, I was fascinated on how my laptop can hop on a network wherever there is a hotspot. With all that said, this class was definitely a lot more work than I anticipated, however, the amount of knowledge I gained far outweighed the workload.

How to manage computers

Managing my computer at home is a lot like managing the computers in my library at school - I have to be constantly aware of what kids are doing on them. With viruses running rampant on the internet, kids never think a computer crash will happen to them. They never think there are viruses out there just waiting to invade their files, or that a power surge could cause them to lose their documents. I've learned the hard way how blocking the fan on the computer with a picture frame will cause the hard drive to overheat. I've also learned that not paying attention to my battery life on my laptop may cause me to lose my working document if I haven't saved it recently. Yes, I've had my share of hard knocks when it comes to computer management; I try to pass those lessons down to my kids and my students so that they don't have to suffer the frustration of losing files.