Web Resources

The Web Resource I think I will use the most in the future is the Social Bookmarking.  This resource is my favorite because of how easily it can be organized to one's own specifications.  Teachers as well as the general public, are becoming more and more reliant on the internet and all of its uses by having information at the worlds finger tips.  I would use social bookmarking to set up aapropriate resources for my students to use outside of the classroom.  I would also use it to create links to all of my favorite and most useful online lesson plans and information that helps me with each unit that I plan on teaching in the classroom.  This will make things very easy for me to see all of my resources on one organized page designed for my class and myself.

Inspiration

I th ink I would invest in Inspiration for uses in the classroom.  It is a very useful and different type of software that I can use a teacher and provide instruction to my students for their use. 
Ten ways I can use Inspiration:
Writing Outlines
Government Diagrams
Science Cycles (water cycle)
Venn Diagrams
Lab Procedures
Concept Maps
Types of Assessments
Flow Charts
Defining New Terms
Planning of Lessons, Units, or Themes

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking can be used in any classroom and could be very useful in mine.  I could use social bookmarking to limit the resources, students use for a particular assignment, to only the websites or pages that I believe are relevant.  Social bookmarking for elementary students would be difficult on a regular basis, however for a big assignment or project where the students may be working from home a lot this would be ideal. 

This can help me on a daily basis by having a list of all my visited websites and important resources being kept in an orderly fashion.  I would much rather just go to one website and see all of my resources than having to think and guess what and where everything is.

This could be very useful right now because I already have a lot of different resources that I've used in college and will continue to use as I get older.  Social bookmarking will be the easiest and most effective way for me to keep track of all of my resources and important websites.

Opinion on GoogleApps

2. I like GoogleApps a lot and think it can be very useful for an type of interaction that may take place between groups and group members.  However, I am very traditional and do prefer the Office Apps because that is what I am used to and have become most accustom to.  I am sure that over time with a lot of practice and incentive I would prefer GoogleApps in the future. 

Advantages:  All of the different apps are accessible from one screen.  It's free to use and can easily be accessed by all users.  Allows for selected users to edit materials created by one person.  Easy to combine broken up group work into one complete final project.

Disadvantages:  A lot of peopler are used to OfficeApps and may not want to change over to google.  Some office options are not available in google.  Using new apps can be confusing, time consuming, and frustrating at first.  Finally, documents tend to be disorganized and in lists, not in folders.

Blogs in the Classroom

1. Blogs are an easy way to involve both students, teachers, and parents inside and outside of  the classroom.  Teachers can use blogs for posting all sorts of different information for many different intended audiences.  Parents could see what is intended to be taught in the near future to their children by their teacher.  Students might be able to use blogs to look up a homework assignment that they may have missed because of an absence.  Teachers could use this to post links to printable assignments or just the daily homework that is due for the next day.  Students and parents might use a blog to help stay in better contact with a teacher and ask questions that may be viewed by other parents or students depending on who their intended audience is. 

There are many advantages and disadvantages to using technology in the classroom.  An advantage might be that technology is an instant attention grabber for most students and will help the students stay focused on the intended task.  Another is that teachers can use technology to make everyday learning more fun for all learners.  Finally, technology makes staying organized both for students and teachers much easier and less likely for making basic errors.

Some disadvantages are that technology doesn't always work they way it is intented.  Another is that anyone at anytime could fade away from the intended reason for using the technology and become distracted by other things they can do with what ever it is they are using.  Finally, technology is not always the most simple thing to use for everyone and can be quite challenging depending on the task.