Webquests

Webquests seem to be fun.  I was not too sure what these kind of sites were, but we did an activity in class that really helped.  I think these sites are creative and make learning fun.  I want to a special education teacher so having fun while learning is important.  I also think that webquests are great ways to get fun activities to do in class or to at least get ideas from.  I like how the tasks involve group work because I feel it is important to learn to work together.  All in all,  I am impressed.

Wikis!

Even though I seem to be technologically challenged, Wikis are extremely easy to use.  I was able to figure out how to create and use the site easily.  I liked how the site was collaborative.  If someone saw something mispelled or felt that something was missing, they could fix it easily.  It is a great site for teachers to exchange ideas and information.  I would definitely use this again after I leave this class. 

Web 2.0 Tools

I thought the presentations of Web 2.0 tools were fun and interesting.  I had no idea about most of these sites.  I still probably would not use most of the tools because I still think they are too much trouble.  I felt that the internet makes these tools more confusing and hard to use.  Because of this reason, I really liked Smilebox.  I love how you can download the tool to your computer and do not have to deal with the internet.  I love the different things you can do with the tool and feel it would really help my elementary classroom.  I also really like Picnik.  I loved the example that was given in class about name cards.  In elementary classrooms, name tags are used to help guide students to their seats on the first day of class.  There seems to be so many so great designs for it that will make it fun for the students.  I do think this project is worth doing every semester because it it explains tools that some people may have never seen before.  Even though the tools seem confusing and too much trouble, I would still try to use these tools in the classroom in order to make learning more fun for my students.  It would be selfish of me to not use these tools because they are too much trouble or confusing.  My goal is to make learning easy and fun for students. 

reflection on evaluating a website

I evaluated a site called do2learn which is an interactive site.  The site is used to get activities for special education student's in the hope of making learning easier for them.  I actually liked the exercise of evaluating a website because it helped me see all the important things that need to be considered when using a website.  I learned this site had its ups and downs.  The downs being that no publisher or revised dates were found on the site.  The ups were that the site was great to get activities off of and was easy to navigate.  I think this activity will help me remember what to look for when evaluating future websites.

website evaluation site

http://ils.unc.edu/~fents/310/

I feel this is a good site because it there is an quality of information check list.  The list gives questions that you should consider when evaluating a website. The site includes questions about scope, audience, author, authority/publishing body, currency, treatment of the information given, arrangement of the site, and ease of use.  I feel the questions given to consider are important and valuable.