Kiosk Reflection

After completing the kiosk project and being able to view the ones that others have put together I have found a new appreciation for the task. It was cool to see the other ideas that were put into place. I liked the really cool pictures that were added as backgrounds to the kiosks because they really enhanced the look and feel of the slides. Also the way that people coordinated their transition buttons with the themes for their kiosks was fun as well. The sounds and videos that were used were also helped to supplement the information that was provided, really pulling the project together. Considering that this project would be used with children it is a good idea to make everything fun and appealing, great job everyone.
As far as I am concerned in completing this project, it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. At first it felt as though it was going to be a lot of work to meet all of the requirements. However, once I actually got started it was not that bad. I did have a little trouble getting a table that I found on the internet to go into the power point slides but that was fixed with little effort by the instructor. Also the only other difficulties that I had were just getting everything to flow and have the transition buttons go to the correct slides. Given the fact that I have a fear of computers and tasks that seem high tech I believe that this task turned out to be not a huge headache after all.
My group did our kiosk on Health and I feel that it is very appropriate for a career working with children. As far as other kiosks go it would be great to make other ones like it just on different topics. Kiosks can be a great alternative way to learn information on a specific topic. I would suggest that children complete them for a homework assignment but you can never be sure as to who has at home computer access and who does not. It would be a great supplemental activity to use when students complete their regular in class work. It would be a way to engage these children and keep them from bothering other children who are still working. I feel that the kiosk assignment has a lot of potential in a classroom and it is up to the teacher as to how creative they want to get with it.

Engaging Concept Mapping Activities

There is a software program avaliable to the public that allows for the creation of concept maps or flow charts and it is called Inspiration. This program can help students and teachers to organize their ideas and information so that they are clear to everyone else around them. Also a concept map can be a great way to make the facts visually appealing to thte audience. Students will enjoy being able to produce a concept map on the computer and add interesting pictures to supplement the ideas presented.



Another great way that this program can be used is by having it serve as an assessment tool for a certain unit. If you are doing a unit on the scientific process you may ask your students to create a concept map based on the scientific process to check for understanding of the process. Once the students are familiar with the way in which Inspiration works they can hopefully be comfortable enough to show you their understanding of the concept and not of the program itself. One cool way to use this program with the entire class is to work together as a class to create a concept map on the board or a large piece of paper. Then the teacher can go back and put it on the computer so that the entire class can have a copy of their creation or you can produce a larger class size version to display in the room. Another option is to have the students offer suggestions as to other ways to use this program. This is a great way to get the students involved in their own learning.

Blogs in Education

You would think that a search engine is a search engine no matter what company owns it. However, when I searched for the words "Educational Blogs" a few different items came up. When I used Google I got sites that organized lists of different blogs on education and sites that listed other blogs that educators use. When I used Yahoo I got one of the same exact sites that Google gave me and one that was a book review written by a teacher on some book on technology. When I went to ask.com it came up with a site that offered free web blogs for educators and also there was another site that had blogs written by teachers.

Now the search engines may produce different websites to visit but what those website have to offer is really pretty interesting. One blog type website is actually used as a school's website and there is even a place for all the teachers to have a space for online discussions and an in depth look at that class. Also the principal has a place to post notes and comments about things that are going on in the classroom. Also, there is a blog site that offers free blogs for students so they can discuss many topics online with other students. Another cool feature that blogs have been used with are as informational websites that provide help with blogs in the classroom. These helpful hints can really help educators to learn all about blogs and how to optimize use in the classroom.

Another fascinating technical feature is the RSS reader and reader aggregators which provide news updates right into the website. It would be helpful to have news updates on a class website so that students can stay up on their news breaks all around the world. Having a news reader which gives the students an update on the news they can then write a blog about their opinions of the world and current events. Some bad things about having a RSS reader is that you need to have good Internet hook ups and computer access, which can be a problem for some schools. Also a news update may not be appropriate for all age groups because it might be to advanced for them. On the other hand RSS readers can help students to form political opinions and compassion for people around the world. Also blogs allow students to have discussions that are less likely to get out of hand, allowing children to express themselves freely.

WebQuest

Web Quest is a great resource to use to get students to interact in new and exciting ways outside of the classroom. A web quest gives students the opportunity to explore the Internet. After an in class discussion with some of my colleagues on the benefits of a web quest I have learned a great deal of information that I would like to share with you. A web quest can help to facilitate group work for classes that may not be filled with time for group work. Also working together in groups is not done as much as it should be in high school classrooms. Also a web quest can be a problem in areas where computer accessibility at home is a concern for most children. In that particular case you may have to add computer time into the daily schedule or arrange a day or two of meeting in the schools computer lab.

Even though you may run into a few bumps along the way a web quest can help guide the learning of the children. Also if a teacher decides to not create a web quest they can use previously created web quests as resources in the class or to help supplement lesson plans. I also discovered in my discussion with colleagues that there is a lot more information out there that I did not uncover. If I had done more exploring of the web quest website I would have found very specific assignments rather than the general ones that I found. A web quest can be very beneficial to a number of lessons. It would not hurt to explore web quests that are already in function or to just create your own for the purpose of benefiting your students.

Multiple Intelligences and technology

Oh to be intelligent in other ways. This is what Gardner had in mind when he introduced his multiple intelligences theory. This theory makes so much sense when you consider the numerous talents that children posses today. Another element that is working in favor of the multiple intelligences theory is technology. When you have children that thrive with lessons that are focused on nature and are naturalistic in nature it might be difficult to accommodate them in the classroom environment. In that case you can assign work over the Internet or through power point and then the students can tap into the nature they need. They can also write essays on environmental issues with research they have found on the Internet. Having that outlet for children is so beneficial because they are focusing their efforts on something that really interests them and they enjoy it as well. What can be better for a child than learning new information while having fun as well. The Internet and other forms of technology, like music and sometimes even cell phones, can help children to broaden their horizons and expand their knowledge base.

Post number one

Welcome,
My name is Nicole Arnold and I am originally from southern California but I now live in the Snohomish area. I am really interested in becoming a preschool teacher and have a passion for young children. I love to listen to music and just hang out.