Tech News for Teachers

Here is our PLN's Tech News. It's an innovative way for students to learn about new technology and for parents to learn about them as well. With descriptions about each website or application and pictures showing the product.

Wikispaces

http://hannahross22.wikispaces.com/

Our PLN made this group wikispace, it is a great space for children to make a website to deliver information.

School Games

http://classtools.net/widgets/quiz/quiz51419.htm/

French Tools through Classtools - Students are able to practice a few french phrases and verbs to become aware of different cultures and understand a different language. The repetition of different verbs and nouns in a fun game becomes easy and soon becomes second nature.

http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/code/BuildWordSearch.asp

I made a wordsearch about the Solar System. This would be a great worksheet for the kids to work with to remember the parts of the Solar System.

VoiceThread

http://voicethread.com/share/936193/

Voicethread is very interesting, I looked over some other people's voicethread's before I began mine and I realized that you could draw on the picture being presented. You can also project your voice, write a comment or do a video of yourself. It's all very cool, I will be using this in the future and now.

In my voicethread I asked questions about the networking site, Facebook. Is Facebook becoming a universal networking site? I mean, universal as in more than just your close friends but also your family, and people around the world. Could Facebook soon become the next Gmail or even Google? Could it possibly be integrated into classrooms or workspaces as a way to communicate?

Glogster & Xtranormal

Glogster, in my opinion, is definitely made for the use of pre-teens. There were a lot of pictures and add-ons that I remember seeing throughout my teenage years. I probably wouldn't use it as a teacher, and I wouldn't even suggest it to students. The pictures and links can be graphic and depressive. I would not any young children being introduced to dark and depressive site as such. The site is obviously designed for children ages 14 and older.

Here is my link to glogster: http://aloberg.glogster.com/edit/fruits-vegetables/

Xtranormal, I have played around with before. It is easy to manage. Kids can have fun making movies and I believe I will probably make little reminders on it for my future students. Great site.

Google Earth & Rubric

Pageflake

I was going to begin a pageflake account. I began to look at the other websites and I realized that all the websites are exactly the same. I already have an igoogle webpage that I use avidly, (I literally check it every minute). I don't really see the point of having another webpage that has about the same little boxes telling me about my mail, weather, favorite quotes from tv shows, favorite arts, and a calendar. I think I would get more out of these sites if I was in your position, a teacher and I had more going on in my life than just school. I mean, I currently only get four to five emails a day, sometimes 10! If I had to look up multiple lesson plans, worksheets, how to teach students a certain subject, how to get somewhere, pick up certain tickets, etc. I would find more use for more accounts from pageflake and igoogle.