ED 527 Module 4 Blog Posting

URLs:  What do URLs tell you/students about web sites?
URLs can tell you some basic information about a web site.  Perhaps the most telling portion of an internet address is the last three letters or the “domain designator” (Robyler & Doering, 2013, p.216). This can help both students and teachers to determine the type of content found at a website.  For example, .edu is for higher education institutions and .com is for commercial sites (Robyler & Doering, 2013).   

Search Engines:  How can learning to use search engines help you/students find better information?

Search engines can be extremely useful in finding information on the internet. General search engines such as Google can aide students and teachers in researching a particular topic/subject. By simply entering a word or phrase, these search engines provide a list of related resources. Search engines can also be used to locate a specific website or item on the internet.

Internet Tool: How might you use an internet tool in a classroom?

I look forward to incorporating wikis in my classroom.  I hope that by the conclusion of this course, I will feel confident in integrating this internet tool into my normal instruction. I would like to use the wiki as a source for course content and eventually as a more interactive tool for my students.

Web-Based Lesson:  Discuss a web site where students could access or you could create a web-based lesson.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History website provides an assortment of web-based lessons that could be utilized in almost any science course.  The activities span a wide range of age levels and could be incorporated into classroom lessons or units. The website offers the best of the Smithsonian museums without actually having to visit Washington, D.C.
http://www.mnh.si.edu/education/studentactivities.html

 

Favorite Web Sites: Post two web sites and talk about why they will be beneficial to teachers and/or students.

http://sciencenetlinks.com/
Science NetLinks is a K-12 science education resource produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This is one of my favorite websites because it provides teaching tools, lessons, podcasts, and hands-on activities. Science NetLinks’ online content is effective because it “purposefully and strategically engages the learner” (Robyler & Doering, 2013, p.226).  The website also exhibits “good structure and organization” by categorizing each resource by subject, type, and age level (Robyler & Doering, 2013, p.255). 

http://www.eric.ed.gov/

ERIC, the Education Resources Information Center, is an excellent website for educators.  It is an online database of educational research and information. This website is effective because it provides “easy navigation” even with such a large database of resources (Robyler & Doering, 2013, p.255).  ERIC is an invaluable tool for educators in locating not only scholarly articles but reliable links for certain topics.  In essence, this website serves as an educational “search engine” (Robyler & Doering, 2013, p.219).

 

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2013).  Integrating educational technology into teaching (6^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

ED 527 Module 3 Blog Posting

 Technological advances can be used to vastly improve education.  Hypermedia products are one such tool which can enhance instructional methods (Robyler & Doering, 2013).  Reference materials no longer consist of simply physical books in a library.  Many reference materials can be found “on the Internet for little to no cost” (Robyler & Doering, 2013, p.175).  These commercial hypermedia products include encyclopedias, newspapers, and almanacs (Robyler & Doering, 2013). 

The U.S. Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health offer an online medical encyclopedia which would be extremely useful in my biology classes.  The following link accesses this collection of articles, information, medical photographs, and illustrations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/encyclopedia.html.  My students could use this reference material to complete a genetic disorder pamphlet that I assign during a unit on heredity.  Students are given a rubric detailing all the facts needed for the pamphlet such as causes, symptoms, and treatments.  Medline Plus contains all this information and is easily accessible.    Students could also use the medical encyclopedia for photographs and/or illustrations to be included in their finished product.   The medical encyclopedia might be utilized in various secondary science and health courses.

The Medline Plus site also includes an extensive assortment of videos, interactive tutorials, quizzes, and games.  The following video illustrates the anatomy and workings of the cardiovascular system.  Students could use this in preparation for dissections and when studying human body systems.  (You must have Apple QuickTime to view the video.)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/anatomyvideos/000023.htm 

Multimedia authoring tools allow people of all skill levels to produce professional hypermedia products (Robyler & Doering, 2013).  Working with these tools can also help to prepare students for the “information-intensive and visually oriented world of the future” (Robyler & Doering, 2013, p.178).  Audio and video production and editing systems is a type of multimedia authoring that gives users the ability to produce high quality videos.  In the classroom, students could use such tools to create presentations.  For example, in my biology classes we have a CELL-abration Day in which students are asked to use their creativity in presenting information about cells.  Past student presentations have included poetry readings, songs, dramatic performances, original artwork, and videos.  I see endless possibilities if students were able to use these multimedia authoring tools in the classroom.  As a teacher, I could also employ audio and video editors for students who miss labs, demonstrations, and/or lectures.

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2013).  Integrating educational technology into teaching (6^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.