March 4th, 2008


Educational Webpages – February 20th, 2008

In Search of the Way of Knowing Trail
There’s a lot of reading, maybe there should be a narrator. Students might not read all the information and lose patience.
I like how it provides options. Ex: What would you do? Walk along the road to the village or walk through the forest to the village. It allows students to take responsibility over their choice. There are a lot of vocabulary words and definitions. The “Factbook” is very useful. The use of maps and compass is also used in this webpage.
However, students are not applying the information gained. We would not recommend this site for children who have difficulty reading.


Mouth Power
A great voice at the beginning! There’s an intro to explain the purpose of the webpage. The intro motivates its user to visit the website. It uses a positive reinforcement by congratulating the students when they have done a good job and giving them a certificate at the end. There are lots of animation and great sound effects.
Not only does it teach dental hygiene but the five food groups and their effect on your teeth. It also requires the use of some math skills by presenting food portions.
It also gives advice to maintaining a healthy life style.
However, this webpage doesn’t challenge its users. It is too easy and gives away the answers. Moreover, tobacco isn’t a good example to represent to kindergarten students because it is not meaningful to them. It is not an example they can relate to. Perhaps, the overconsumption of candy will be more effective.
I recommend this webpage for young children.

Black Holes: Gravity’s Relentless Pull
It has a great introduction to explain what black holes are using sound, images, and animation. The words are written emphasizing what is being said. It provides explanations of vocabulary related words. It is simple to use.
Not only does it teach the user about black holes, it teaches the user about various elements in the sky. When the user scrolls on the page, it indicates where the black hole is. It also has some information on the solar system and various planets.
It has a lot of animation and sound effects which captivates students.
It takes the user on a voyage to the universe, making this webpage even more exciting!
It challenges the user by asking the speed of the speed craft and by explaining the right answer. We definitely recommend this webpage for older children.

Zoo Matchmaker
The game has great animation in the beginning with funny examples captivating the user. The examples are comparative and the music puts the user in the jungle mood. However, there’s a sexual content which isn’t completely appropriate for children. The female and male tiger go under a tree to breed. Then the tree leaves shake and they have babies. The user has to make the most resistant baby tigers in order for them to survive.
This webpage provides teaching resources that includes a data table for teachers. It includes camps for children from grade 1 to 12. It provides many links. The website is colored and easy to go around.


Visited websites

Power Point
Power Point is a great tool to use in the classroom. It’s good for the teacher as well as for students. Teachers can use it to help with certain lessons whereas students can use it for oral presentations. I used to be very nervous when doing oral presentations. The main reason is because I was scared to lose my train of thought. Power point keeps the user on track and the main points of the presentation will be present on the slides.

Scholastic
Scholastic is great for teacher because it has teaching resources such as lesson plans, strategies and professional development about classroom management, integrating technology, and reading. Also a teacher can become a member in order to get printable and free programs. I think it’s GREAT!
It’s also good for students. I especially like that students can become writers and publish their work online. I believe that students like to have their work online; it provides students with a meaningful reason to work. Also, they can join a community of writers.

Inspiration/kidsperation
Inspiration is a great tool for students. It helps in many aspects of learning which include projects, studying for exams, and writing papers. It’s a visual aid which represents `thought through images and words`. It helps students as well as teachers brainstorm ideas for new projects or class themes. Also, it can be used in any subject area (science, language arts, math etc…) and at any grade level depending on the depth one wants to use it. This site also offers teachers resources such as books on image learning such as: (determining cause and effect, making comparison, decoding ideas, generating questions, evaluating information and testing one's knowledge), and lesson plans.


Alan Kay article: ‘Revealing the Elephant: The Use and Misuse of Computers in Education’

In his article, Alan Kay is arguing that what we learn depends on the society and school that we grow up with. If we are given the opportunity as children to learn hard things then we will because children are always up to the challenge. Music is not easy, but he gives an example of the effect of music in his school. Because of its emphasis in the school he attended, his love for music is still in him until today. Also, most if not all children in that school knew how to read and play music because it was very important in his school.

He also argues that the most important documents in the world are argumentative ones yet only 5% of American have learned to think or write in these non-story form. Most of us read narratives because these are the types of book we have been exposed to the most when growing up. He sais that instead of being exposed to `stories`, ‘it is very important for children to become fluent in all three of the central forms of
thinking …which are stories, logical arguments as well as system dynamics’ `. In order for that to happen, he sais that teachers need to know how to think that way so they can be able to teach it to the students.

When looking at technology in the classroom, he states that we need to create an embedded environment with right support for the classroom teachers. When he visited classrooms, he noted that there were computers in the classroom, but according to him, it was used as `junk food`; not in the right way at all. Children aren’t learning and growing with the technology because they are not challenged and shown how too. Once again he states that American say that its hard just like the argumentative text and therefore they don’t put the effort in learning its symbols.

Finally, I think that the author is right when he sais that we don’t put enough effort in things that we perceive as hard. We need to become a community that loved to learn and where else to start than in the classroom. Teachers need to build a community of learners in their classroom because it all starts there. But we can’t do it alone. We need support and help from professionals but I think that the class that we are taking now is a good start at showing us how to integrate technology into our classrooms.