Googleform, Googleearth, Wordle and Gliffy

The tools we learned about today seem to be very useful. One tool presented to us was googleforms which can be used for invitations, surveys, quizzes, or even essay assignments. I thought the invitation can be used for many celebrations both personal and school related. This is a great way to inform parents whom you communicate with through email. The survey like our presenter mentioned can be used to get feedback from parents of what they thought about the year and what things could be modified. For Googleearth I got many great ideas of what it could be used for like socialstudies. In prek we can talk about the community and how it looks, we have a whole theme about community so this would be a great way to show students how the police department building looks like. We can also show them the fire department building and comparisons to other buildings in other states. It is a very useful tool for all grade levels. A third tool we learned about is Wordle this can be used to brainstorm different topics and it organizes it in a creative way. This in my opinion can also be used for any grade level. A forth tool we learned about was gliffy can be used for language arts to brainstorm different topics as well. It is like a web that can be used using technology instead of using paper. It has many functions to it that can be added to add more information on the topic being researched. All of these are great tools that can be used both in school or for our personal use.

Chapter 2

In reading chapter 2 I found that Prensky points out partnering in the classroom and how our classrooms should like to facilitate partnering. Our program is privileged to have such support in terms to partnering. Our PreK focuses on socialization as one of the main goals. Therefore our classrooms need to implement this and support such environment. Although each learning center is designed to have a certain amount of students in each because of space they have a lot of time to interact with different students at all times. During small circle time we divide students depending on their language and this is also a great opportunity for partnering.

Podcasts and Vodcasts

I had never used these programs to take videos or record myself and it is always useful to know about such programs because I have been required to record myself in previous courses. Now that I am aware of these tools I can upgrade the quality of my recordings. As well as making videos I can now use other formats instead of using the phone to do such assignments.

Social Networks

For these topics my classmates and I presented information about social networking, such as twitter, Ning, and Facebook . My partner and I focused on facebook and I learned several things I did not know about it. I found out the population of facebook is almost as big as a country this is very surprising to me. On twitter I realized that it could be used as threads something like we do in class with blackboard which is interesting. I also realized how these tools are great to be used in the classroom if taught correctly. Many times students are a lot more excited about using technology than using books all the time. Something new and different is always a learning expierence for all. For my particular grade level it is difficult to incorporte any of these technology programs but I could use them with communication with the parents.

Using Storybird

http://storybird.com/books/mother-and-daugther-time/?token=7xcj7a9kax I really enjoyed using storybird to make my own story. I think this is a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom in many ways. I was able to come up with a story just by looking at the pictures. This is also a great method for students to think about the words and together come up with a story. Now that we will be having Ipads in the classroom I will be able to use more programs with my students. Overall it is a tool that can be used for any grade level.