September+17,+2009

Building a Google site and a Wiki was a new experience for me. I did not know that either of these tools were available to use for free. Neither of the two were hard for me to figure out because I have always been around computers, and I am glad that I now know about their availability. I can see these being of great benefit in the classroom for a variety of reasons. One major reason is the interaction between students and technology. Students are much more apt to write or comment on a blog than to write a journal entry in a notebook. I can also see a teacher creating a Google site or a Wiki to keep students updated on what is going on in the class or to post when upcoming assignments are due. The reason for this is that students tend to lose papers on a daily basis, but if the information is readily available online they may be more likely to stay up to date on their homework. As a future teacher, I have a couple different ideas in mind for ways to incorporate these to technological tools into my classroom. The first is, as I stated above, to create a site informing students and parents about what is taking place in my classroom. Another possibility is for students to create their own Wikis, and use these to respond to questions. In Social Studies this would be rather easy to implement due to the broad topics that are generally covered. I could, for example, give an open-ended question about an event in history and have the students respond to this using their Wiki rather than writing it out on paper. These tools are also a great help in meeting technology standards set by the state or other organizations. Today I met multiple ISTE standards by creating and using these two tools. The following standards are ones that I feel I have met; Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments, Model Digital-Age Work and Learning, and Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility. Along with these I have also met these ODE standards; Basic Operations and Concepts, Technology Productivity Tools, and Technology Communication Tools.