Images

Wanting to be history teacher for middle/high school students, using any imagery software would be useful.  Students can look up a picture on the internet, or they can create their own images pertaining to a certain event that they are learning.  Students will be able to see what other students gathered and could comment on the pictures to agree or disagree whether the pictures work well with the specific time period.  They could create their own propaganda posters without using big sheets of paper.

Plagiarism, Direct Instruction

I think we can all agree that plagiarism is wrong.  Students learn from their parents and their teachers.  If they see that their teacher is not using appropriate citation methods, then they are definitely going to copy their teachers example and will most likely be dealing with the consequences later in life.  It is a good idea to teach our students about how to properly cite their sources while they are young, so in college they have the experience and wont get into any trouble with copyright issues or plagiarism.

Mobile Learning

Teachers should embrace mobile learning because in today's generation of students, they learn faster.  Students using mobile learning makes projects get finished at a much greater speed.  An issue would be that students using their mobile devices would use them for their social interactions such as Facebook, Twitter, and text messaging.  Ways to solve these issues is having students download Lanschool onto their mobile devices on the first day of class.  This ways the teacher can see what websites the students are on.  I would use Socrative in my classroom because students would be able to take their tests using a mobile device instead of using the traditional paper and pencil.  Nearpod would be useful for students to get interactive in the classroom.

Twitter?

Follow me on Twitter :).

Information Literacy

Information literacy is defined by Wikipedia, "to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand." We can teach our students to be information literate by teaching them to NOT trust everything we see on the internet.  Instead we can look at several different webpages that could be useful and show them what to look for in a good website.  The students will at first need to locate the AUTHOR of the webpage, and hopefully they will be able to see his/her credentials on the topic that the author is trying give us.  Secondly we can see how old the information is, students don't need to be looking at a webpage with out of date information. Third we need to look at the specific content of the material, we need to see how useful the information is, and making sure how to spot any vague content.  Lastly we can look for any bias that the author might they might have.  Some bias is good, but depends on the research that a student needs.  We really cant prepare students on how to research on the internet, except to warn them that there is bad information on the internet and you cant trust everything we see.

How to use Podcast's in schools

Podcast's can be used in multiple ways for teaching history to middle and high school students.  First of all a teacher could create a podcast of the reading material so students can listen to the teacher read the reading for the class and follow along in the book to retain the information.  Another good strategy for podcast's is that a teacher could create a lecture for their students so they can download the podcast's and they can take the lectures anywhere they want.  Another way a teacher can use podcast's is by having their students create podcast's by having them read the material into their podcast's so their students can listen to themselves reading the information at their own pace.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Multimedia

Since I would love to teach middle/high school students in social science, I could definitely use many of these video creating software's in my classroom.  For starters, I could make a podcast for my students of my lectures so they can listen to the lectures whenever they need too, especially before a test.  These wouldn't be long podcast so the students do not have to listen for a long time. I can also use screen casting in my my classroom for students to show multiple websites that students can use for researching a topic, or I can make an interactive power point where they can watch and listen to it whenever they have time.  Most of all I would use live streaming if I had the resources.  If there are cameras in the classroom I can use them to create videos for my students and place them on my website so students who are sick and view the lecture while they are laying in bed resting.  These are very useful tools that educators can use in their classrooms to help there students succeed their goals in the classroom.

Go2web20 Assignment

Hulu:

Hulu is a very popular internet television website so people can view the latest new episodes of their favorite programs.  With some programs, they have older episodes as well, but mostly it carries the newest episodes. Hulu most definitely meets my expectations, i use it constantly to watch some of my favorite television programs. All age groups can use Hulu, they have programs that are appropriate for all ages.  Teachers can use Hulu for multiple reasons, a history teacher may use Hulu to show a segment from a history channel show.  Kids remember things much better if they are shown something visually. Teachers may also use Hulu as a "treat" for their students for the day after a test. 

Prezi:

Prezi is a interactive powerpoint creator.  I personally love Prezi, i have used Prezi in multiple classes for presentations and it is more fun to create a powerpoint through Prezi than it is using microsoft powerpoint.  Teachers can use this website to either create their own powerpoints or to have their students create their own powerpoints for their projects.  Prezi is very simple to use, just need to watch a quick video that is provided on their website when you create an account, which is free! The only complaint I have is that if you don't pay attention to the video than it is very hard to figure out how to add more areas to your powerpoint. The website is for anyone to use, as long as you know how to use a computer, so mostly students in middle to college.

Weebly:

Weebly is a very simple way to create and upload your own website.  I have not used weebly but many of my classmates and friends have used weebly for college and for personal use.  Teachers can use Weebly to create their own classroom website where they can post assignments, and post links to websites for resource material for their students.  Weebly seems fairly simple, you just have to start creating your website till it satisfies what you want it to look like. The intended audience is mainly for teachers, they can utilize the website the most for their kids.  Students in high school and up can utilize this website as well, i dont recommend this website for elementary and middle schoolers.

Some interesting Blogs

Here are some great blogs for meeting people in your school or around the world

Nichole Friday
michael Payseno
Janell Davis
Grant Kessel
Katie Martin

First Blog

My K-12 education never used blogs for school work, this is my first experience with blogging.  I only saw girls blog while I was in school, so I never did blog because I thought it was only for girls. Having blogging in the classroom is a very good idea, students can have instant direct contact to their teachers, and classmates for grading, and possibly peer editing. It also gets students to be more comfortable talking to each other for future bonds.  There is always going to be a risk when involving students no matter what age to internet dangers such as, cyber bullies, and internet predators. Some parents may not be ready to send their kids to the internet world even at school.

If blogs are used correctly and effectively they can meet all the requirement for the National, and State standards of Oregon.  Students having blogs is good for their creativity, imagination, writing improvements, and much more.  More schools should get the funding to get their students to improve their technological skills at the start of having a blog. Blogs can be accessed anywhere, the students doesn't need a computer at home to access their blog.

The lesson plan I found is for the grades 7-9 in social studies.  I found this to be a very good project for middle schoolers to learn about the cold war. The assignment was called "Cold War Hotspots" They each pick an area and write a essay on their area in the Cold War. They need to cite at least 3 credible sources and use MLA format style.  They also have to create a Google site and make it look like a web news site article. Also after they are finished they publish the site and other students can comment on the page to see what the strengths and weaknesses are.  The students are meeting standards by being creative.  They are creating their own web page as well as learning effective writing techniques such as writing a paper and citing their sources. I personally am a big fan of this assignment, it is a great way to learn about the Cold War from multiple angles, instead of just learning about the United States and the Soviet Union, but learning about other countries that were involved.