Web Sites as Conduits for Teaching

I am a second generation teacher. My mother had no need for excessive technology in her day. I grew up seeing the movement from slide rule becoming obsolete to digital calculators becoming mainstream. Now my son has his own laptop and phones are as powerful as some of the first computers. The web is a valuable resource when used correctly. Creating your own website will allow you to guide your students into this resource.

ANYONE can make their own website, do not be afraid of technology. For those not as tech savvy, look into the predefined templates. Google sites has a classroom website template that is perfect for an elementary class and easily adapted to secondary school needs. I repeat ANYONE can make a site this way for FREE.

The best thing about Google Sites is that it has wonderful how to links and tips to guide you step by step or when you just get stuck. There is the ability for more complex html programming or you can stick to their basic page templates. If it is your first attempt at a site be sure to complete the tutorial first. Going through the tutorial will help minimize simple mistakes and save construction time.

I highly recommend building a site to interface with your students. This site can serve as a parent teacher interface, and an organizational tool for students and yourself. With a website and the availability of access to the web via phone, Internet driven businesses, public libraries, school computer labs, personal computers, and more your students could not pull the, "I didn't know that was due excuse." This is the electronic age. We can do a lot of thing paperless to accent our teaching. Teaching with technology is about increasing the paths and depths of learning in our students. What better way to do this than using the web and creating your own site. My demo site is a sample secondary school chemistry website created via google sites: http://sites.google.com/site/mkgbrookchemistry/.

Google Sites

Anyone can have a web page! Google sites is a free shareware website generation medium. As teachers we need to convey a lot of information quickly and efficiently. A good way to do this is to set up e-mail lists for you parents and students, in addition to having a class website. The most important stuff to include in a website for my class is a calendar, homework assignment list with detailed instruction, detailed project listings, vocabulary and test study sheets, note links, and important references. A blog and bio are nice, but not essential in conveying student learning information. I will definitely have a website for each class!

Technology Assessment

I have truly enjoyed learning how to teach with technology. One of the most important topics I have learned from my class is to use technology as a better means for assessing students. With school computer labs and public library computer labs, all students have access to computers at some point. Computer software can aide in the instruction of all students, with or without special needs. I can not praise enough all the free shareware software out there. OpenOffice, and Google documents are just a few that equal the playing field for students.

I plan on using excel generated quizzes and knowledge queries. I plan on allowing for electronic submission of lab reports and projects. I will utilize computer presentation software and more in my classroom. Technology is here and we need to keep learning so that we can continue to educate or students of the present, if not future.

Digital Movies as Teaching Tools

Chem Lab Rules by mkgbrook

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun! ">

This is a link to an animated digital movie that I created through a free shareware animation program known as Goanimate. I felt that the one common movie in Chemistry that tends to be boring and out of date is the Chemistry Lab Safety video. Goanimate.com allowed me to create an avatar Mrs. G to lecture on chemical safety rules in a fun way. Not only can you make animated characters perform crazy feats, you can also go over the rules in three minutes versus thirty.

The digital medium allowed for integration of background music. This can be used as accent to the film topic. You can use music provided or import your own. The feature I liked the most was integrating the MacPro GarageBand to create voice overs for importing into goanimate.com. GarageBand in podcast mode can be used to create narratives. This can be used to give your animated characters speech or create oral downloadable notes for students with severe vision problems.

Another feature provided by goanimate.com is an embeddable link upon completion of your project. This worked instantly versus the link function of blogger.

I can see many applications for both students and teachers in secondary school to utilize goanimate as a fun means to present information. I strongly recommend that you check it out and have fun!

Inquiry based learning tools can be made easy with Spreadsheets.

Interactive inquiry based learning tools can be an effective learning tool. Students may attend to an interactive learning tool more than an old fashioned worksheet. A piece of paper can not tell the student that he is wrong, try again. The complexity of the learning tool can be as simple as a memory regurgitation quiz where there is only one answer and one chance to input that answer or more complex with various responsive hints to guide the student to the desired answer. In our teaching with technology class we were required to make an interactive quiz with set formatting guidelines. I have captured and presented a .jpeg image of my Excel generated .pdf for easy viewing. As you can see you can produce a clean and clear quiz format using excel that can be sent to students for home completion or used to aide special learning students that need computational instructional support.



This is not a tool that can be used for easy viewing of a students problem solution work. It is however a good tool for simple query based assignments. In chemistry I think it is most applicable for vocabulary and naming queries. If you wish to use this for more complex questions that require mathematical work you can give partial credit, if students turn in their work. This is a tool I will definitely be using in my classes.

Using Diagrams and Webs for Classroom Learning

Webs and Diagrams can be very important in learning new thought processes. Many software programs have the capability of creating Diagrams and related outlines. The latest version of Word allows for creation of diagrams and corresponding outlines. I have created one as a hand out for my 355 UTK class using Word 8. This had the same capabilities as the flashier Inspiration software package with out the complications of uploading, viewing, and linking non-standard formats. Once you have created your outline and diagram you can save them as a PDF and upload the file to google documents easily. I have created a diagram about Acid and Base determination using Inspiration, but the saved files are did not link well. To upload my Inspiration file, I first tried to transfer it to a Word 8 file. This did not allow for transferral of the image, only the outline. To upload the image I had to export the Inspiration file as a .jpg file and insert using the image linkage function. I was not able to link the files directly from google documents easily. I had to insert the links as image files in accepted image formats and just link an open shared .pdf for the blog to accept it. Once again technology can be frustrating. Take time to pull your hair, stomp your feet, or growl. I am sure you have had at least one technology burp today.

This is the inspiration product on Acid and Base identification:



Using Word you can generate a diagram outline as easily as you can in Inspiration. This opens up the capability of creating two types of notes for students that learn via different methods. More visual and graphical learners can benefit from diagrams and webs. Others may be distracted by the figure and prefer just text. Software like Word and Inspiration both can be great tools for conveying information to your students and colleagues. A link to my Word 8 generated outline and diagram follows:

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B9S3ROI0XNNRNTc2NjAyOTktNjQwZC00ZmJjLTkxYTEtZDYwNDAyMDk4ZDAx&hl=en

Reliability of Technology

Technology when it works can enable anyone with the knowledge to use it, but when it fails it can be the ultimate frustration source. The big “M” suite, (You know the software package responsible for the dreaded blue screens), and its lack of stability is a constant annoyance. I have had the best relationship with the shareware office suite, Open Office. This I would share with anyone that cannot afford the more expensive software packages. It may not have all the bells and whistles of its commercial counterparts, but it covers the basic needs and will not die in the middle of a project. Adobe Photoshop Elements crashing on me 7 times in the last 15 minutes has inspired this mini-rant on technological reliability.

Given that things break and chaos happens we need to be prepared in the case our instructional technological wonder flops. Follow the girl or boy scout always be prepared, so have a low tech back up at all times.