Electronic Portfolios

1 good and 1 bad example of electronic portfolios on the Internet

• Good
• http://durak.org/kathy/portfolio/
• This portfolio has a side bar that has links to what is in the portfolio
• It is easy to see what is being offered and easy to navigate back to the home page
• she offers a lot of pictures of student work
• colorful
• Bad
• http://www.electronicportfolios.com/
• The links on this page are all over and it is hard to know what is offered
• Once off the main page it is hard to navigate back
• A lot of the same colors (gray and black)

Copyrights

Copyrights are a lot stricter than I thought.  I was surprised that even if you own a movie and show it in the classroom not for educational use it is illegal.  I have always watched a lot of movies before breaks and on random days in school.  Outside of school people are always using other people’s things and going off of it, I think this starts to run into plagiarism with copying other peoples work.  As a teacher I think it is our responsibility to talk to students and make them aware of what the laws are and what can and can’t be done.  I think Jeopardy is a good and fun way to help students learn also having the students do a research paper and site all the sources. 

Video Project Lesson

I would use this in the classroom for history and have the students play out a scene in history.  This would be for a 3^rd or 4^th grade class.

 I would have to reserve the cameras and computers ahead of time to know that I will have them for the students when they need  them.

 I would have to teach about the different times in history first.  In order to prepare the students for the project.  I will then teach them how to use the camera and the different aspects of using it.  I would also teach the students how to use the movie software. 

I would have a small project first where the students would use the camera and get used to it and the movie software before actually filming their project. 

Video Project

Our video project went well.  We didn’t have a lot of talking which was helpful when filming.  One thing that we could have improved on was filming everything the first day we were still a little unsure how we were going to film it all so it took us a while to get started.  From this project I have learned that making video is not that hard and that I can be a fun and useful project for in the classroom.

Interactive whiteboard

I feel that the interactive whiteboards enhance teaching because they are interactive and the students can come to the board and answer questions or play games that will tell them the right answer in the end.  Learning to actually use the smart board was not hard; the hard part was creating the lesson.  Each button does something and all the commands were new.  One problem I had was I would forget to click on the arrow hand after I made a text box or added a shape and would then make a new box or shape. 

Pros: I feel that the interactive whiteboards will help keep students interested because there are so many ways to use then that the students won’t get board and will always be wondering what is on the next slide. 

Cons: The interactive whiteboards can be distracting when teaching and can take away from the learning and focus more on games if the teacher is not careful about what they are using it for.  Also if a teacher is using it all the time it may be hard for the students to go back to just a lecture style lesson.

In the science lesson I could use the smart board as a way to show the steps of a process, I could use it to match things or find places on a map.

Software Skills

In class we went over a lot of tools in Microsoft word, publisher, and smart technology.  All of these tools are important for teachers to know and practice as a students so when teacher I will know what to do.  As an elementary education teacher I feel that I would use word and publisher the most.  I feel this because not all schools have smart boards or that are easily accessible to all teachers.  Word and Publisher come on all computers now and can be accessed fairly easily by anyone.  These programs will be used for assignments, assessments, letters to students and parents.  Also through word we learned a little about excel which I feel is another important tool for teacher to know how to use.  With technology becoming more common and standard in all schools grades are done on line and not by hand anymore.  In excel grades can be entered and a formula can be entered to add the grades atomically when a new grade is entered. 

Web Resources

All of the web resources we look at in class I have a use for in the classroom. 

The one I feel I would use the most would be united streaming.  I love having other ways for students to get information.  Through this website students can watch a video which almost all student love to do in school and they can find new information in a fun way.  All the videos are free which is great for teachers.  Also you can watch a full video or just a segment which are all sectioned off already for you, some of the videos also include tips for teacher like lesson plans, citation, and quizzes which can all help teacher when they find a video they want to use in the classroom.  It is also really easy to download the video so it can be watched with or without internet access. 

Another site I really likes was 4teachers.org and the specific site was academic skill builders.  This site is good for students to use to reinforce what was taught in class.  The games are fun for students while helping students to react fast to answer the question.  The games include math, language arts and geography.  This would be useful as a center on the computers or for students to do at home to continue learning from school.