Web 2.0/Webinar

image source

Web 2.0 is a great resource for teachers and students! According to a Web 2.0 website, Web 2.0 is a term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online. Social networking sites, blogs, videos, or wikis are included in Web 2.0 technology that students have access to. This semester, I have a class titled Web. 20 Technology, and I have an assignment to build a wiki all semester. I think learning about Web 2.0 technologies is interesting because students today are digital learners. As a future English teacher, I will want to incorporate Web 2.0 in my classroom to help keep them engaged.

Also, I have uploaded a video of a webinar I have watched. This is a webinar introducing Google Sites for Educators - something we have heavily learned about this semester in Technology in the Classroom.





                                                                    video source

Blogger

image source

Blogger is a free application to build blogs. I thought it was a neat application, as I am using it right now! This is a great website for teachers to use to reach their students. Teachers could post about upcoming assignment or projects due. Also, I think it is neat how we can build portfolios in this application. And did I mention it is FREE??? Also, it offers many designs and templates to choose from to personalize your own blogs, which I thought was really fun! I think creating a blog in blogger would be a great project for students to do, because it allows them to express their creativity and individuality not only through the design they choose to detail their blogs, but also the actual blogs they would post. I loved creating my blogs in Technology in the Classroom!
On a side note, I do think it is important for teachers to push Digital Citizenship with their students. When creating a blog, all students should know to only write appropriate and respectful posts about themselves, as well as others. Blogging has led to cyber bullying, and I hope teachers will monitor for this adequately. 

DESE

image source

DESE is the official website for teachers in the United States. This website includes: career opportunities, state standards for curriculum, current news in Education, standardized testing information, adult learning and rehab services, quality of schools, and special education links. In essence, this website is the foundation for all those in the Educational field. Every teacher will consult this website. For the Educational classes I have taken so far, I have had many assignments pertaining to this website already because we as future teachers need to be familiarized with it. 

This video shows Ron Lankford speaking of the Missouri Department and Secondary Education.

                           image source

Lucidchart

Image source

Lucid Chart will be a great resource for me in the English classroom! My students would be able to create modern concept maps with all kinds of tools presented in the tool bar of this application. It can create flow charts or diagrams, too. The best part about this application is that it is FREE!! 

This app is great for student brainstorming, too! I can remember during my high school years I had to use paper and pencil to make flow charts or concept maps for my classes. These could easily have been lost in the stacks of papers I received from teachers. Now, students can access their charts in lucid chart anywhere as long as they have an internet connection and they need not worry about losing the work they have accomplished. 

Pixton

image source

Pixton is a fun resource for student learning! Students can use their creativity to make comics about various subjects. For my class Technology in the Classroom, we had to make comics about Digital Citizenship in pairs. We could change backgrounds, characters, settings, plot, and add sound effects. I will implement this in my classroom because it allows students to use critical thinking, comprehension, and communication skills - skills they will be using after graduation in the real world. 

video source

ISTE Standards

image source

image source

The ISTE Standards give teachers a foundation to base their lessons they incorporate technology with. According to the website, the NETS set a standard of excellence and best practices in learning, teaching, and leading with technology in education. Benefits of using the standards include: preparing students for a competitive job market, online learning environments, and inspiring digital age learning models. As a future teacher, I will have to implement these standards in my classroom as project-based learning is becoming more popular. I love the idea of using technology to help my students be successful in their learning, because they are growing up more with technology today than ever before. 

Study Blue

image source

In Study Blue, you can make flash cards for all class subjects imaginable. According to the website, "StudyBlue is made for students. It empowers a generation of ambitious digital natives who expect and deserve high quality digital study tools. Nobody forces anybody to use it and nobody tells anybody they can’t. StudyBlue helps students learn better. Learn together. And get smarter." Students can also use the site to make notes for their classes. It enables students to be independent thinkers, and they have access to the information as long as they have an internet connection. I think this would be helpful for my future students to use, and I will definitely implement this resource in my classroom. This will give my students other options for studying for tests and note taking. Also, this can promote student collaboration. My students will be able to quiz one another using each other's flash cards for quizzes or tests. This can promote higher test scores, and over all, higher success of my future students.

NCTE

 

 

image source

NCTE, or the National Council of Teachers of English, has a very useful website for English teachers. Included in its website is a list of great resources students and teachers can use. NCTE has included a Books Program, which has published resources for teachers’ professional development at every level, elementary through college. There are career opportunities posted for students and current English teachers. Grant opportunities are also available. The Edwyna Wheadon Postgraduate Training Scholarship helps support training and enhancing teaching skills for postgraduates. Another great resource for teachers is the Hot Topics. This allows teachers to write individual comments, as well as respond to others’ ideas. My favorite resource I found for myself was the Lesson Plans. NCTE gives examples of already classroom-tested lesson plans for students in Kindergarten through high school. As a pre-service teacher, I can use this as a guide to help me build my own lesson plans for my future classes. However, memberships differ in price from students to professionals. Student memberships cost $25.00 and Professional memberships cost $50.00.

 

 



Diigo

 

image source

Diigo is a free, social book marking site for students! Normally, teachers do not want their students marking up textbooks with notes or highlighters. According to a diigo website, students can do research, use tools to help share information, take personal notes, highlight text information on web pages, bookmark and save notes for further use, and share information with friends when using tags. This is a great resource for students! They no longer have to worry about carrying notes around with them. As long as they have an internet connection, they are able to view/study/highlight notes without the use of actually paper and pencil. Also, this site allows for group work among students. Students are able to share notes with their peers. This can help those that work better with their peers than as individuals.

I have uploaded a video titled An Introduction to Diigo For Educators:

 

video source