Reflections

1. There were many tools that were new to me. I enjoyed learning about something on almost every tool. I don't think that I will be much of a blogger but tools like Jing, Diigo and Skype were very interesting and I will definitely take time to learn them better. Google apps and Google docs are tools that just need to be learned and added to my daily routine. I am not sure what I will use in my class since this is my first year in Resource and I will be teaching LLI. But I am sure that as the year goes by that there will be many opportunities to use some of the things I have learned.
2. I do see how everything is moving and changing in the classroom with these tools. The kids love their computers and working with them. I know I see so many other ways we can possible to some things. It is difficult for the teachers to find the time to learn about and get proficient with all these tools and somehow it all needs to be balanced for the teacher.
3. The biggest surprise was just there were so many things I had never heard or seen before. I thought I was doing OK on my computer but I realize now that I had fallen way behind. I need to spread my wings and fly into the 21st century.

Tool #11

Digital Citizanship is very important and we need to start to teach that to the students when they are very young. So many kids are using computers, Ipod, game stations or other ways to access the internet and the potential for problems is huge. I am going to be working with younger kids - age 7 or younger. I think that some of the videos would be a good introduction to them start thinking beyond what they see in their first searches. They need to learn to think it though and not just accept everything as the truth or that it is OK for them to be looking at it. They need to learn to protect themselves and never give out personal information and they need to start learning about privacy settings. The students need to be monitored while they are using the computer to make sure that are not accessing undesirable sites but also having things like cyperbullying going on.
So my three things for being a good cyber citizens are:
1. Don't share your private information on the internet.
2. Realize that just because you find it on the internet does not make the information necessary correct.
3. Think through whatever you are seeing and ask your teacher if you are not sure what to do or what you have found. Learn to work with websites that your teacher or district have provided so that you will hopefully know that you are getting good information.
They will need to be reminded frequently on what it means to be a good digital citizen.

Tool #7

Another tool I just need to spend more time on. I can see many uses for this in Resource to help with learning concepts. Having a students make their own videos would be so exciting for them and would give them so much learning time withh that concept. Most of the students at my school do not have access to a home computer so finding time for them to do something like this may be the challenge. Photo Story 3 is so easy to use and I am sure even my primary kids will be able to use it.

Tool #10

I don't have any of these devices but have always been intrigued by them when I have seen them but after this I may end up getting one for me. Many of the apps would be too advanced for my Life Skills class but I saw many that would be great fun for them. They looked puzzles and computers. I saw educational sites about learning sign language, practicing spelling CVC word, many math apps for patterning and other math apps as well as flashcards. The systems would be a great addition to Life skills, to help the kids to work more independently and yet having fun at the same time. Since I am moving to Resource this year, I will have to see what kinds of apps I could use for the kids I am working with but I am sure there are many.

Tool #9

WOW!!! I have a friend who uses Skype and so I knew a little about it but when you really understand what can be done with it, it is truly amazing. I downloaded both Jing and Skype and I planned to go back and spend much more time learning them. I am moving into resource this year and I will mostly be doing LLI with primary kids I am not sure how I will use it. Many of the children don't have a computer at home which limits some of the uses such as parent contact and homework help for the kids so I am really going to think about how to get around that with both if these tools. I love the possibilties of sharing ideas with other teachers not only at the school but ANYWHERE. I taught Life Skills for the lasta 4 years and there are many ways to set up easy read alouds and a million other things for the special needs children. This looks so much faster that many of the programs and sites I was using.

Tool #8

I spent way to much time on this one because I was having so much fun. I have used video streaming with my class the last two years but I did not know about about mnay of the sites and how much more there was available. I added one video to the actually post and I put the second one on as a gadget. My kids always loved watching the butterflies we hatched but these kinds of video help to clarify the process and they always seem to learn more from the videos.

Tool #6

I loved this tool! I can think of so many ways I could have used this for my students in Life Skills. I looked at PBWorks, Wikispaces and Google sites as well as SBISD Curriculum Wiki. I would like to see a Wiki set for some of the specialized SPED curriculums so that many teachers could easily pass ideas back on forth on it. I am not sure how I will use this with my LLI students but it is definitely something that has many uses. I think it might be good to use Google sites since SBISD seems to be using so many Google features and usual things that are all designed together (Google) worked together better.