There are many pros and cons to virtual schools depending on the student’s needs and abilities. Only the individual student themselves can decide what the real pros and cons are. What is a pro for one person can be a con for another depending on the student’s lifestyle.
Virtual schools are not for every student and many cannot learn effectively in this environment but there are also many benefits. The first pro for virtual schools is the flexibility. Many parents decide a great portion of their child’s schedule and tailor it to the student’s needs. If the parent is the teacher they have the chance to spend a lot of quality time with their child and help create a bond. Parents can also monitor their child’s progress more closely and only teach what they find appropriate. Many skills are also learned in virtual schools such as self-motivation and becoming an independent learner.
One of the negatives of going to a virtual school is being isolated from other students. There is not the same daily interaction between classmates in a virtual school as there would be in a traditional classroom. Most of the class work is also done independently and student to student interaction in limited. There can also be a loss of social skills because of this. Virtual schools can also be missing other extracurricular activities like athletics, clubs, and organizations. It is also difficult for students to receive various forms of feedback. If there is only one teacher the feedback is limited. Students also do not get to experience various styles of teaching.
To determine the readiness of students to participate in distance delivery the student must be committed, determined, and independent. If the student does not have these qualities a virtual school would not be the right choice. To be able to teach a virtual school you would need the same qualities as a student that is ready for virtual schooling. Teachers have to be prepared for a drastic change and weigh all of the pros and cons before teaching.
Emerging Technologies Project
Every day new technologies are emerging and many provide educational value. As these new educational technologies become more readily available and affordable more and more classrooms are incorporating them in their daily routine. This will change the traditional classroom as we know it. Guest educators do not have to be physically present in the classroom, students can learn from various ways and new subjects can be introduced.
There are many websites that are committed to bring new technologies into the classroom. The first site I went to was http://www.linkslearning.org/. This site is for students, parents, teachers, principals, and superintendents. The LINKS learning site provides the latest internet technologies for a multimedia learning experience. For teachers this site is useful for finding information on mathematics, reading, and science. They can also find other useful resources for the classroom. For students there are interactive math lessons, and for parents there are strategies to help your child learn. This site will impact how students learn by providing a different learning strategy that may help many students. Students will be excited to learn from an interactive site oppose to the daily pencil and paper method.
The next site I went to was The Global Virtual Classroom Clubhouse. This is a multi-national site to help provide teachers with internet communication technologies. The clubhouse is to help classrooms around the world communicate with one another. Classrooms who participate in the clubhouse can work on projects together or send each other postcards. Classrooms participating in the clubhouse can gain culture awareness, computer skills, writing and reading skills, learn different languages, and learn a lot more from this project. Students will become more connected with the outside world and gain so much from other students.
The final site I explored was the Picasa link on the website http://www.google.com/educatores. Picasa is a free downloadable program students can use to upload, edit, and share their pictures with classmates. Picasa is a great way for student to start editing their pictures and also share them with the class. Teachers can also have albums dedicated to classroom activities or unites to capture the students’ learning in visually. The students can also share their pictures with parents by simply downloading the albums on to a photo CD. Students can learn computer skills they will use later in life and also create albums they will keep for a long time.
All of these sites are great impact on teaching and the preparation for teaching. All of the sites incorporate ways to include students, parents and teachers. There are so many different sites and new technologies at times it can be hard to keep up with. Taking time to explore the new emerging technologies can provide many benefits to your classroom.
I think that all of these sites will be useful now and also in the future. There is a great deal of information that can be found in many of the sites. I thought that the student centered sites were very interesting. I thought that finding ways to encourage students to be more involved in their education would be a great way to get them more excited about learning.
There are many websites that are committed to bring new technologies into the classroom. The first site I went to was http://www.linkslearning.org/. This site is for students, parents, teachers, principals, and superintendents. The LINKS learning site provides the latest internet technologies for a multimedia learning experience. For teachers this site is useful for finding information on mathematics, reading, and science. They can also find other useful resources for the classroom. For students there are interactive math lessons, and for parents there are strategies to help your child learn. This site will impact how students learn by providing a different learning strategy that may help many students. Students will be excited to learn from an interactive site oppose to the daily pencil and paper method.
The next site I went to was The Global Virtual Classroom Clubhouse. This is a multi-national site to help provide teachers with internet communication technologies. The clubhouse is to help classrooms around the world communicate with one another. Classrooms who participate in the clubhouse can work on projects together or send each other postcards. Classrooms participating in the clubhouse can gain culture awareness, computer skills, writing and reading skills, learn different languages, and learn a lot more from this project. Students will become more connected with the outside world and gain so much from other students.
The final site I explored was the Picasa link on the website http://www.google.com/educatores. Picasa is a free downloadable program students can use to upload, edit, and share their pictures with classmates. Picasa is a great way for student to start editing their pictures and also share them with the class. Teachers can also have albums dedicated to classroom activities or unites to capture the students’ learning in visually. The students can also share their pictures with parents by simply downloading the albums on to a photo CD. Students can learn computer skills they will use later in life and also create albums they will keep for a long time.
All of these sites are great impact on teaching and the preparation for teaching. All of the sites incorporate ways to include students, parents and teachers. There are so many different sites and new technologies at times it can be hard to keep up with. Taking time to explore the new emerging technologies can provide many benefits to your classroom.
I think that all of these sites will be useful now and also in the future. There is a great deal of information that can be found in many of the sites. I thought that the student centered sites were very interesting. I thought that finding ways to encourage students to be more involved in their education would be a great way to get them more excited about learning.
Kiosk
An interactive kiosk on a PowerPoint provides information access to many different topics. The viewer interacts with the kiosk while learning about a topic. The kiosk may include sounds, music, movies, animation and more. At the end of the kiosk presentation, there is a review test the viewer must complete. If the view does not answer the multiple questions correctly they are re-directed to the slide that contains the answer.
I had a great time working on my kiosk. I think this is a great way to engage students in a subject with fun features. What I liked about the kiosk project was the freedom to create anything you wanted and also work together to collaborate on ideas. This project was great to work in groups because of all the unique ideas everyone had. Everyone contributed to make the kiosk the best it could be.
While creating the kiosk project there were many frustrations. Most of the frustrations came from the technical difficulties we were having. For some reasons some of the slide would not show up during the slide show. We looked for them afterwards and they were there. We had to delete and recreate some of the slide in order to make them work. Another problem we had was that for some reason some of the links to other slides were wrong and we had to re-direct them as well. While viewing the kiosk the sound did not work as well. This was really frustrating because we had worked so hard to find the sounds and music for the kiosk and in the end they did not work.
Kiosks can be incorporated in the classroom in many ways. Teachers can use kiosks in every subject area. They are a great way for students to work individually as well as in groups. Kiosks can be used as an assessment tool or just for a fun activity for students. When using it as an assessment, teachers can relate what they are learning in class to the kiosk and then ask the students questions at the end. As a fun activity students can just view the kiosk and a test at the end is not necessary.
I had a great time working on my kiosk. I think this is a great way to engage students in a subject with fun features. What I liked about the kiosk project was the freedom to create anything you wanted and also work together to collaborate on ideas. This project was great to work in groups because of all the unique ideas everyone had. Everyone contributed to make the kiosk the best it could be.
While creating the kiosk project there were many frustrations. Most of the frustrations came from the technical difficulties we were having. For some reasons some of the slide would not show up during the slide show. We looked for them afterwards and they were there. We had to delete and recreate some of the slide in order to make them work. Another problem we had was that for some reason some of the links to other slides were wrong and we had to re-direct them as well. While viewing the kiosk the sound did not work as well. This was really frustrating because we had worked so hard to find the sounds and music for the kiosk and in the end they did not work.
Kiosks can be incorporated in the classroom in many ways. Teachers can use kiosks in every subject area. They are a great way for students to work individually as well as in groups. Kiosks can be used as an assessment tool or just for a fun activity for students. When using it as an assessment, teachers can relate what they are learning in class to the kiosk and then ask the students questions at the end. As a fun activity students can just view the kiosk and a test at the end is not necessary.
Engaging Students with Concept Mapping
Concept Mapping is a useful technique for visualizing the relationships between different topics. A concept map can be a diagram or picture to help show the relationship between concepts. Concept maps use labels, arrows, words, and boxes to help the viewer visualize the idea. Concept mapping can be used in many different ways.
Students can use concept mapping in every subject in school. There are many possibilities to concept mapping. One of the most common uses for concept mapping is to display or organize ideas about a paper or book. Students can organize their essay or paper before they start writing by creating a concept map. They can lay out their ideas and organize their paper by paragraphs. Students who use concept maps to summarize a book they have read can look at different parts of the book and create many different concept maps. They can make a concept map from the whole book or just from one character in the book.
Concept mapping does not only have to be about reading and writing. Students can also use concept mapping in science and math. They can make a concept map about almost any topic in science or math. Students can categorize mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. In math students can make groups of similar object or estimate using concept mapping.
Concept mapping can change the way students demonstrate a concept or idea in many ways. Using concept maps students can display main topics in the middle, subtopics, and then branch out to a smaller category. This way they can demonstrate that they know how the main topic relates to all the other subtopics and sub-subtopics. They can also see the connections through the pictures used. If a teacher used pictures in her concept map the students can visually follow the map. This might also help them understand the concept as well.
Students can use concept mapping in every subject in school. There are many possibilities to concept mapping. One of the most common uses for concept mapping is to display or organize ideas about a paper or book. Students can organize their essay or paper before they start writing by creating a concept map. They can lay out their ideas and organize their paper by paragraphs. Students who use concept maps to summarize a book they have read can look at different parts of the book and create many different concept maps. They can make a concept map from the whole book or just from one character in the book.
Concept mapping does not only have to be about reading and writing. Students can also use concept mapping in science and math. They can make a concept map about almost any topic in science or math. Students can categorize mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. In math students can make groups of similar object or estimate using concept mapping.
Concept mapping can change the way students demonstrate a concept or idea in many ways. Using concept maps students can display main topics in the middle, subtopics, and then branch out to a smaller category. This way they can demonstrate that they know how the main topic relates to all the other subtopics and sub-subtopics. They can also see the connections through the pictures used. If a teacher used pictures in her concept map the students can visually follow the map. This might also help them understand the concept as well.
Blogs in Education
Using blogs in classroom is a great resource for students and teachers. Students can communicate with each other and with the teacher almost anywhere and teachers can receive instant feedback from their students. After searching educational blogs on the search engines Google, Yahoo, and msn I discovered that they shared the most popular educational blogs but each one also had a few of their own. Most search engines have the most popular sites but also have a few that are only located on their search engine. I noticed that some search engines also compiled the results from other search engines on to their own. The most popular sites people view are always going to be the first ones on the list results.
Searching through the educational blogs I found many interesting and innovating ways blogs are being used in K-12 classrooms. One teacher found out that using blogs helped his students connect with each other in blog communities. They discussed homework and also got to know each other better through their blogs. The teacher’s only concern was that most of the time he felt he was left out of the discussion. This time he is going to use the blog to connect more with his students and use them to as a tool to help his students get to know him better as a person not just a teacher. Another blog that I found interesting was about helping first year teachers with their struggles in the classroom. I found this one interesting because it was a way for experience teachers to share advice and knowledge to new teachers who might not be receiving this advice elsewhere. Another blog I found innovating was one being used to help teach technology in the classroom. They have conferences by classroom tech experts from around the world. This way teachers can listen in and not have to leave there classroom.
RSS readers/aggregators , also known as feed reader, is software or a web application that syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location to make it easier to view. They reduce the time and effort needed to check websites for updates, allowing its user to create their own personal information source. Teachers might use RSS readers/aggregators in the classroom by having updated information available in from any source they want. This can be useful in many subjects including subjects were current information is important. Science and health are two subjects where the most recent information or discoveries are needed. Using blogging and using RSS readers in the classroom can have many positive impacts. Students and teachers can receive updated information in the matter of minutes. They can also post their own views or comments on a subject just as quickly.
Using blogs in the classroom can benefit the students and teachers in many ways. Students can receive help from their teacher or from a classmate, they can discuss their own ideas, and with RSS readers find current information on a topic. Although using blogs and RSS readers in the classroom has many pros there are some cons. Some students many not have access to a computer or the internet at home, their typing level is not high, or when using RSS readers finding information that you once found before could no longer be available.
Searching through the educational blogs I found many interesting and innovating ways blogs are being used in K-12 classrooms. One teacher found out that using blogs helped his students connect with each other in blog communities. They discussed homework and also got to know each other better through their blogs. The teacher’s only concern was that most of the time he felt he was left out of the discussion. This time he is going to use the blog to connect more with his students and use them to as a tool to help his students get to know him better as a person not just a teacher. Another blog that I found interesting was about helping first year teachers with their struggles in the classroom. I found this one interesting because it was a way for experience teachers to share advice and knowledge to new teachers who might not be receiving this advice elsewhere. Another blog I found innovating was one being used to help teach technology in the classroom. They have conferences by classroom tech experts from around the world. This way teachers can listen in and not have to leave there classroom.
RSS readers/aggregators , also known as feed reader, is software or a web application that syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location to make it easier to view. They reduce the time and effort needed to check websites for updates, allowing its user to create their own personal information source. Teachers might use RSS readers/aggregators in the classroom by having updated information available in from any source they want. This can be useful in many subjects including subjects were current information is important. Science and health are two subjects where the most recent information or discoveries are needed. Using blogging and using RSS readers in the classroom can have many positive impacts. Students and teachers can receive updated information in the matter of minutes. They can also post their own views or comments on a subject just as quickly.
Using blogs in the classroom can benefit the students and teachers in many ways. Students can receive help from their teacher or from a classmate, they can discuss their own ideas, and with RSS readers find current information on a topic. Although using blogs and RSS readers in the classroom has many pros there are some cons. Some students many not have access to a computer or the internet at home, their typing level is not high, or when using RSS readers finding information that you once found before could no longer be available.
WebQuest
WebQuest is lesson organized on the web. Most of the WebQuests use web-based material and are categorized a certain way. Most of the WebQuests are organized by grade level and include: an introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion, credits, and a teacher page. A WebQuest would impact student learning by familiarizing the students with computers and also incorporates their own knowledge of computers to do web-based activities. WebQuest facilitates a different learning technique that helps many children become excited and motivated to learn.
What I learned from the WebQuest website was that there are many different lessons that can be found on WebQuest in a variety of categories. A couple of ideas for uses would be group activities, homework, unit lessons, and integrated into lessons. The first step would be to choose a topic for an assignment. Then a teacher could simply search WebQuest for ideas and pre-made lesson plans. I also learned the steps to making my own WebQuest or ways to modify existing WebQuests.
What I learned from the WebQuest website was that there are many different lessons that can be found on WebQuest in a variety of categories. A couple of ideas for uses would be group activities, homework, unit lessons, and integrated into lessons. The first step would be to choose a topic for an assignment. Then a teacher could simply search WebQuest for ideas and pre-made lesson plans. I also learned the steps to making my own WebQuest or ways to modify existing WebQuests.
Focus on Learning Styles
On the website Enhance Learning I learned many different ways people can learn. Everyone student has a different learning style. Some students may develop strengths in some area but lack strengths in others. I also learned that the students culture and background also plays a role in how they like to learn and what learning environment works best for them. One of the sections in the website described the nine different learning styles. There was a online test to go along with the nine different styles to see which learning style best described you. The format of the test consisted of nine separate section with many different statements. You would mark a one next to all the statements that described how you were and the section with the most ones in it was your learning style. I thought this was very interesting and also showed how individuals could be have many different learning styles. For example I was visual learner as well as a interpersonal learner. I was categorized as learning with the help of visual aids and also learned from working with other people. I think that for teachers to find out what ways their students learn best is a huge accomplishment and will only improve their students learning.
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