Recommendations
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Item (linked) |
Rationale |
Listservs or
Forums
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ITUGDE |
This listserv's title is Instructional Technology
Users Group of Delaware. It was started in Summer 2000 and is overseen
by Wendy Modzelewski of DCET. The group members include teachers, preservice
teachers, vendors, and administrators in Delaware. Membership has expanded
to include educators in Pennsylvania and Maryland also. Members can send
email to the listserv anytime, without going through the moderator first.
This creates quite a lot of mail at times, but enables you to 'listen'
to responses to the listserv messages. I find this listserv very useful
for keeping up with conferences in the area, special deals from vendors,
and special grants and programs. Members can email a technology question
to the group, and usually the responses are very helpful and informative.
There is no newsletter, but the group does have a monthly meeting in the
DCET office in Smyrna. Upcoming meetings for the 2001-02 school year will
include discussions on electronic portfolios, video conferencing, and morning
news broadcasts. This listserv is a good networking tool for meeting other
teachers in our area who are trying to integrate technology into their
classrooms. I would recommend this listserv to every teacher in Delaware.
To subscribe send an email to:
itugde-subscribe@yahoogroups.com |
| Learning Links |
Learning Links is a newsletter that was created by
a mother who was home schooling her children. The newsletter is sent out
every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The members of the newsletter can
email Emily Hoffman, the author, but can not send out replies to all members.
This cuts down on the amount of email this listserv can create. I have
found the newsletters interesting in two areas: 1) many of the listserv
members are home schooling parents and the newsletters expose myself and
other members who are public school educators to the concerns of "the other
side" and 2) there are often some good website links listed by subject
matter and appropriate age levels that I can use in my lessons. I have
been a member of this listserv for over two years and usually get several
links to use in my lessons each month. The newsletters are archived on
Sodamail.com are only listed by date, not by topic making it difficult
to search for a certain topic. |
| Technobuddies |
Technobuddies is a listserv to provide elementary
teachers discussions on technology integration in the classroom. The listserv
is on Topica.com and was started in December 2000 and there are currently
27 members. It is an unmoderated listserv with a newsletter sent once a
week. I just joined Technobuddies for this course and the only email I
have received said that Technobuddies will resume in the fall, it is 'off
for the summer'. So I can say I am not overwhelmed by emails from this
group so far. I plan to continue my membership this fall to see what the
newsletter has to offer. The list of archived emails shows there has not
been extensive communication in the group so far. |
Telecollaborative
Projects
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How
Do You Eat an Oreo |
This project will begin September 1, 2001 and will
end October 18, 2001 so there is still time to sign up for the project.
This science experiment is based on expected student behavior. Each school
that conducts the experiment will provide glasses of milk and an oreo cookie
to each student. By observation of behavior recording will be done on the
number of students who 'dunk or do not dunk' the oreos. Results are sent
to the sponsoring school to be tallied and posted on their website. The
sponsoring school will create graphs for displaying the tallies. The age
range for this project is 5 - 19, so it is open to grades K-12. Send an
email to JWagner@Crossroadsschool.org for full information and a tally
sheet. I plan to participate in this project this fall as an introduction
to using graphs, tables, and spreadsheets. |
| Bugs
Count |
This K-3 data collection project is sponsored by
Onlineclass.com and there is a fee to participate. The project is part
of an unit on insects that, for a fee, can be accessed on-line. The unit
has lesson plans, resource links, and activities. Participating classrooms
count insects, at home, in the school, or on the school yard and report
the results on-line each week. The unit and data collection seems to be
about six weeks long. In reviewing the on-line data reports from the various
schools, it was interesting to see how the schools in Texas, New York,
and Canada varied in 'bugginess' during the different weeks in the spring.
Spring and Fall would be the best seasons to participate in this on-going
project because of the varied results of the schools in different regions.
The project dates are ongoing from 9/01/00 - 12/30/03. The technologies
used include email and a web based discussion forum. |
| Looking
For Linc |
This is one of many of the collaborative epal projects
on the web where young students in classes pass around a stuffed mascot
and send emails back to the sponsoring school describing what the mascot
is experiencing. A good idea that many teachers have begun to incorporate
into primary class curriculums. In this project Linc is a stuffed polar
bear from Lincoln Street School in Northborough, Massachusetts owned by
a first grade class. The project teacher would like to include only other
first grade classes for Linc's journey this coming school year. The project
dates are 10/01/01 - 4/30/02. To participate an email should be sent to
Felicia Comeras, fcomeras@nsboro.k12.ma.us. |
|
Search Tools
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Locate.com |
This web site contains several helpful search tools.
It has a data base of web sites divides into categories, six search engines
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AltaVista, HotBot, InfoSeek, Lycos, Yahoo, Excite, a meta search , and
a search tool for locating people. I have used this site many times to
locate web sites while preparing lesson plans. When I need sites for a
certain topic I find it easier to have all the search engines working at
the same time. Frequently one search engine will find several useful sites
on the topic while others find no sites I can use for my lessons. I have
found the same situation occuring when I have used this site while doing
research for my various Masters courses. I have also used the map tool
when I was trying to locate a certain location in Baltimore before a trip.
The map created allowed me to have a very good idea of how to get to the
address. I would not recommend this site for elementary students but it
would be a very useful tool for teachers when researching sites for certain
topics. I ran the typical "whitehouse" search and whitehouse.com can up
through Lycos. When I ran a search for "Andrew Jackson's vice president"
I received 6 Andrew Jackson web sites that looked like good possibilities,
and 3 or 4 Vice President sites that looked promising, including the U.S.
Vice Presidents Trivia Quiz. |
| Yahooligans |
When asked to search for "andrew jackson's vice president"
Yahooligans could not locate any sites in its data base. But it could find
sites for both "vice presidents" and "Andrew Jackson". This could lead
into some good lessons on how to form the search while using this site
with students. When asked for "whitehouse" more than 20 sites were
returned, none being 'whitehouse.com'. I would recommend this site for
elementary students both for doing research and as a place to 'hang out'
and explore when they have completed work and have extra computer time.
This site does a very good job in achieving its purpose - providing information
elementary students can use in completing class assignments and homework,
and some fun activities such as games and jokes. I especially like the
section on 'asking an expert'. Yahooligans has GrammerLady for grammar
help, GoMath.com and Ask Dr. Math for math help, Ask a Scientist, and Ask
a Reporter (various reporters from the New York Times). I would recommend
this site for school use by elementary students. |
| Searchopolis |
I had not heard of this site before our course. When
exploring this site the first thing I noticed is that the grade level icons
near the top of the home page are for 4 - 12. While exploring the Science
section of the data base of sites I found several Life Science sites on
the human body that I think my third grade students could use, but I agree
with the creators of Searchopolis that many of the sites would be better
suited to fourth grade and up. When I conducted my two test searches for
"whitehouse" and "andrew jackson's vice president" I was sent to Yahooligans
search engine. I received the same lists of sites I had received while
exploring Yahooligans earlier.What I do like about this site very much
is having the reference tools easy to locate at the top of the home page.
I would recommend using this site in educational settings because it not
only gives a good data base of age appropriate sites but has an atlas,
dictionary, thesaurus, calculators, and encyclopedia within easy access
for elementary students. |
Lesson Plan
Sources
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Education
World |
This site combines Education World magazine with
a data base of lesson plans submitted by teachers. When I first discovered
this site I was excited, believing it would live up to its motto - The
Educator's Best Friend. After researching the site I am not as excited
by its data base of lesson plans. When searching for technology lesson
plans to use in an elementary computer lab, I found some very interesting
articles on lesson planning in technology but not any lesson plans in the
data base. The site did have some links to other web sites with technology
lesson plans for teachers. I had better luck in the area of early childhood/kindergarten.
In that section I found interesting articles, good links to other sites,
and many lesson plans in the data base. The quality of the plans varied,
with some being well written and motivating to try. Others were sketchy
in detail and ordinary in content. So while I will visit this site to read
some articles it will not be a site I will visit as a computer lab teacher. |
| The Solution
Site |
The Solution Site was developed by the West Virginia
High Technology Consortium Foundation, funded with a U.S. Department of
Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant. School districts in West
Virginia send a team of teachers for training in technology, called Phase
9. The teachers get laptop computers for their use, while agreeing to two
commitments. They must train teachers back in their home districts and
create a lesson plan that addresses the West Virginia State Standards and
integrates technology into the lesson. The data base of lesson plans on
this site are the lessons submitted by the Phase 9 teams. The site contains
K-12 lesson plans that give the students more active involvement in their
learning. What makes this site so unique is the fact that all the lesson
plans are solely created by teachers who participate in Phase 9 training.
What I like about the lesson plans on this site is knowing they integrate
technology. I love the idea that many of the lesson plans are actually
the lessons in power point presentations. This web site is a data base
of power point presentations ready to use. The site is divided into sections
- fine arts, science, english/language arts, health, vocational/ technical,
etc. It is for K-12. At the bottom of the home page is a helpful link that
is suppose to connect you to the newest lessons. I hope it works because
it will save time not having to go through the sections every time you
go back to the site. I recommend this site and wish Delaware had a similar
one addressing its standards. |
Data Sets or
Online Tools
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Infonation |
Infornation is sponsored by the United Nations. It
is an easy to use data base that lets the student view and compare statistics
on the member states of the United Nations. First the nations are listed
by continent and the student can select up to seven nations from around
the world for comparision. Next, the student can select up to four criteria
for comparision. The critera is organized is four categories - Geography,
Economy, Population, and Social Indicators. In Geography some data is:
area, largest city population, average temperatures, precipatation, energy
comsumption, CO2 emissions. Examples in Economy are: Currency, GDP, GDP
per capita, three major exports, unemployment rate. Population examples
are: density, pop. under age 15, grwoth rate, infant mortality. Some Social
Indicators are: life expectancy, illiteracy rate, spending on education,
motor vehicles, refugees. After the selections are made the student sees
a table with the countires and criteria. I think this could be a useful
tool for social studies classes to use to compare other areas of
the world to the United States. I would recommend this tool for third grade
and up. |
| The Official U.S. Time |
The Official U.S. Time site shows a map of the United
States with the time zones. Students can select the time zone from the
map or a list, then get a screen with the offical time for that zone to
given to the second (accurate to the 0.9 of a second) and a map of the
world showing light and shaded areas. The light areas are the areas of
the world currently having daylight and the shaded areas are the areas
currently having night time.Students would enjoy seeing how the shaded
section does not have vertical sides but curved sides, giving the students
a visual example of how in some time zones it can be night in the southern
hemisphere and day in the northern hemisphere. There are also some good
links to other sites that could be used for a complete unit on time. The
linked sites include: A Walk Though Time (a history of timekeeping), Daylight
Saving Time (when and why), ClockWorks (illustrated clock mechanisms),
Calendars Through the Ages (different systems for counting days, months,
years) and It's About Time (on atomic clocks) |
| Dr. Watson |
Dr. Watson is a tool that will analyze your web page
on the internet. A student types in the URL of the web page and Watson
will then copy it directly from the web server. It will check link validity,
download speed, search engine compatibility, link popularity, spell checking,
proper META tags, and can ask Altavista's datbase to see how many other
pages have links to that page. Dr. Watson is a free service by a web hosting
company. I don't know if the web host will try to sell it's hosting service
but having the free analizing service seems that it could be useful to
technology students and teachers creating web sites. |
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