4/19/10

Today we went into a classroom in Edith Bowen to see how a teacher implements technology in his classroom. It was exciting to actually see how great these resources can be. He uses ipods, websites, a wii, other computer games, and other technology. I wished that I could have been a kid in that classroom! They probably don't realize how lucky they are to have such great resources available to them. One thing that I got out of our visit was that it is possible to keep the students on task even when they are using things like ipods, and that is good to know since that is one of my concerns.

Then we came back and did website evaluations:

1. What form(s) did you like/dislike? Why?: I liked the "MidLink Magazine" evaluation because it wasn't just a yes or no, you could rate criteria from 0-4. That was better because some websites partially met the criteria and there was a way to record that.
2. Were there any hidden secrets about a website you discovered by using an evaluation form?: One of the websites looked legitimate, but I realized that there was no author or creator mentioned with contact information and the website was not run by a familiar organization. In this case I would want to verify any information I found on that site by checking others.
3. What is the value of using a web site evaluation process?: Evaluations can be used to determine the credibility, usefulness, and quality of a webpage.
4. Are there times you would/would not use a formal evaluation?: Yes, if I was just playing around or not researching something I would not worry about using a formal evaluation, I would just informally check for certain things. I would use a formal evaluation when deciding whether or not to use a website in my classroom.