Post #7

Personally i believe that presentation power points and other visual tools are only a plus for the student and the teachers. It makes it that much easier for a teacher to present the information and it makes it that much easier for the student to see and understand the information that he or she is being presented with. The graphs and other visual tools that you are able to use in visual presentations only makes the information easier to grab mentally because you are actually visually taking in the information the same time the teacher is explaining it. Since i am looking to teach at a higher level in education maybe high school i would have the students work in groups and come up with their own presentation covering a small section of the whole topic that the class is going over at the time of the assignment. They would than be given evaluation forms for their peers and they would watch each group present so you know they fully understand the information and have a working knowledge of the subject matter.

Blog #6

I did really enjoy the web 2.0 program. I would definitly use that in my lesson plans as a teacher. I think that my students will really benefit and enjoy from the visual tools that web 2.0 offers. It will really help them learn at a quicker and more efficent way. I really enjoyed the wikispace website becasue it will only better a group presentation becasue they can all input info/data and adjust the info accordingly. These will only improve the validity of the information that is presented by the students. I would assign a presentation much like the one we were assigned on wikispace to where they each have their own space but it is all connected through a central home page. I think that all the skills i learned involving Wikispace can only inprove my skills as a teacher. I espically enjoyed the part of wiki that allows you to embed a video of an example of a problem. It would be a great visual tool but would also assist the students who are vocal learners. I truely believe that all the technological tools we have used up to this point only make the learning more efficent and worth while.

Post #5 EME2040

After thinking about it for a couple minutes i really cant decided if the internet in more useful to students or if it is more harmful to them. Think about it for a minute a student has a up coming essay due or have an essay test, they can simply google the information and be able to copy and paste from so many different sources that it potentially can be untraceable. There are just so many different sources on the internet and you honestly never know if even the articles posted are 100% true you just never really know. However, that same reason makes the internet so useful to a student, it is so easy for them to be able to back up their information or answer with so many different sources of information. Students should have no problem doing efficient research that can be backed up by so many different sources and types or sources.

There are many types of sources on the internet that can help you find trustworthy articles or information. For example at the FSU library website we have the lib search program that goes through the entire paper bound and internet sources that are related to your search topic. Also there is a program called project muse i have only used it once but it was very efficient for finding creditable information/research.

The level and age of students i would like to teach would be late middle school to early high school. I would personally try to supervise the activities of my students on the internet but there is only so much one teacher can do in a class overwhelmed by students. There are also many programs that run through the school servers and monitor the activity on the internet and ban many of the inappropriate websites. Also i am sure with all the advances in technology that there is a monitoring program that shows every screen of your students computers on your screen and you can control their mouse and keep very close tabs on them.

Post #4 EME2040

I personally found all the information in chapter 7 to be very useful and interesting. The level of technological knowledge to use these programs as a teacher must be that of above average but also i believe that the students being taught with all this technology must also be of a higher level or age. To get a young child to even understand and be able to make a concept map on inspiration would be quite the challenge but someone older and more technology savvy would be able to do it in a quick minute. I would have to say that i would encourage my students who hopefully will be around the age of a late middle schooler or that of a early high schooler. Using a program such as inspiration makes it so much easier to make a concept map and will only help a student become very organized and more of a visual learner. Students that do these sort of visual layouts make it easier on themselves because they can actually see the way all of the concepts on the map relate to each other and can potentially make the writing or thinking process a lot easier for that individual. Without a doubt the skills and knowledge that i picked up from mastering the program inspiration will help me greatly in my career as a teacher and will only make it easier to relate and help my students learn in more of an efficient and time friendly manner. And its not even the concentration on the program inspiration because if you truely come to know how to use the new technology of today you are only at an advantage compared to your competition in school as well as the ever changing job market.