Twitter!

I absolutely love twitter.  Most of all I find it to be very entertaining (my twitter id is natkscott so follow me!).  I got a twitter basically because all of my friends did and they said it was fun, so I gave it a shot.  At first I found it to be kind of pointless.  Why did I care when my friends were bored with doing homework? But the more I used it the more I liked it.  It was especially useful over the summer when I was curious as to what my friends may be up to but actually did not want to go into an all out text conversation about it.  I also really like following certain celebrities, mainly Conan O'Brian and sports stars.  I think it is really interesting to see what they like to tweet about.  Some of them are really interesting and talk about behind the scenes stuff that is really cool, while others are kind of lame to follow.

I had never really thought of using Twitter in the classroom cause I was not sure how useful it would be.  One use would be for it to update students on homework and stuff everyday.  There could be a classroom twitter that I could control, and then tweet updates on homework and reminders everyday.  The students could then have it sent to their phone so they would be sure to get it.  How cool would that be?  Twitter is definitely something I will consider using in the classroom.  But not my own personal twitter account, I would create a classroom account.  I would not really want my students to know what I was doing all the time.

Inquiry Based Learning vs. WebQuests

There are obviously positives to both of these technologies in the classroom.  In many ways, I feel like WebQuests would be better for younger students and inquiry based learning better for older students.  Younger students are more prone to enjoy the way a WebQuest works, especially when they are cheesy and make you act like you are someone else.  For some reason I do not see High School seniors being all that crazy about WebQuests, they would not be into it as much.  A WebQuest often times takes a lot of imagination which is much stronger for younger people.  However high school students would probably thrive in the inquiry based learning because there is a set goal for it, and it is actually obvious what you are learning.  I still see ways that they can both be useful in my class.  When I want something a little more epic and to get the entire class involved I would probably do a WebQuest.  On the other hand inquiry based learning seems like it will be better when I want them to work as individuals and learn on their own.

WebQuests!

My experience with WebQuests so far has been very mixed.  There are certain aspects of it that I think could be very useful in my classroom, but other parts just seem like they would give me a headache.  I like the fact that they get students thinking and using technology.  To do a WebQuest (at least one I would choose for my classroom) would require the students to think critically.  Most of the WebQuests I saw also required them to use technology beyond just being on the website (like the one that required students to create Facebook pages for all the characters of Romeo and Juliet...hilarious).

I am a little cautious though because a WebQuest seems to present the opportunity for students to get very off task, especially if they do not enjoy the WebQuest that we are doing.  It is highly unlikely that there are many WebQuests out there that an entire classroom would all love.  That means that while there are certain students who would love the WebQuest assignment, others would loathe it.  I would just tell them to suck it up and do the work, but the fact that they are on a computer gives them the opportunity to do other things without me knowing about it.

Overall, if there was a WebQuest that my entire class would enjoy I would probably do it.  I am sure they would enjoy doing something interactive and using technology, the key is just to provide one that they would actually get something out of it.

igoogle

Look, igoogle is a pretty cool thing I am not going to lie.  It has many uses that I find practical and just very useful.  I now use it as my homepage on my own computer.  The Google reader tool blew my mind.  I had no idea that you could have a program that would automatically update the websites and blogs that you read, and even narrow it down to certain ones! I also like how personalized it is.  I have my twitter (yes I have twitter) and facebook set up on my igoogle.  I also have links to my favorite news sites and sports sites.  It even has live scores!  Throw in the weather and igoogle is basically everything I need on the internet without having to go from website to website all the time.  It is one of my favorite things we have learned so far.  Check out igoogle (click on it).

Also to read more on igoogle, Kate Rutkowski is in love with igoogle, but she uses it in different ways than I do.  So to check out why she loves igoogle just click on her name.  Be warned, she is obsessed with it.

Picnik?

So for my Web 2.0 project I will be using the internet tool called Picnik.  Here is my experience so far with Picnik: crazy people on Facebook taking normal pictures and turning them into collages of madness.  I'm confused as to why people would want to take a picture of a couple people and put a frame of dandelions or daisy's around it, but apparently it is really popular (but not so much with guys).  Oh well, guess we will have to wait and see how it goes.  Perhaps I will find some more productive uses for Picnik than other people on Facebook have.  In fact that is my goal for this project, to try to show people that Picnik can be useful for other things than just spiffying up pictures on Facebook.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about...does this seem necessary?

So many comments I could say right now about this, but for the sake of professionalism I shall refrain. (But is the heart really needed in the middle of the "A" in Canada? Come on Canadians!) okay that was my only comment.  (But is this not the most stereotypical picture of Canadians you will ever see?) okay I'm done.

Reflection on Evaluating Websites

Before the assignment on evaluating websites I always knew that it was important to do research on them before they should be used in class, I just did not know how to go about that exactly.  I especially did not realize that there were so many websites with expertise on how to evaluate a website.  I assumed there would just be one correct way to go about it that everyone accepted.  The website that I evaluated was EasyBib.com.  It is a website that I have used for every paper assignment I have had since my senior year of high school.  I have always thought it to be a pretty refutable website, but I never thought of evaluating it to make sure.  Now I am glad that I have evaluated it because it confirmed that it is a very good website indeed.  I was worried that it might not be accepted in certain academic fields, but after evaluating it I see that it is a good reference point.  I learned a lot from evaluating websites, and it is something I will definitely use in my classroom.  For most of my career as a student I have just used any website I could find that had the information I needed and wanted.  Instead, I want my students to use websites that are respected in the learning community.  I doubt I will make my students evaluate every single website they want to use for class (that would be tedious) but it is something I would definitely make them do when they are working on a major project or are wanting to use a new website.

Website Evaluation Site

The site that I found for evaluation is run by Lesley University.  The website is run by Lesley University (click on it to check it out).

I found this site to be very useful for college aged students as well as teachers.  It gives a list of eight different things to look fro when evaluating a website, and then goes into specific detail about each of them and also includes examples.  Some of the options covered by this website seem to be more geared towards teachers because it asks questions such as if the website is appropriate for your classroom environment.  It also provides real websites for each of the eight different things to look for about a website so you can check it out on your own.  For example, one of the things to look for is currency, and it provides a link to CNN to see how current some of the articles are.  Overall, I believe this is an effective website evaluation site for teachers and older students.