Website Evaluation

I evaluated a website with Jennifer Graves in class on a child's concept of weather. The website was a FEMA website and it told kids about what to do in bad weather, different types of weather, and it gave weather games that they could play on the website. The website was very colorful and very inviting to kids. I think that they would spend alot of time on the website and they would really enjoy learning about the different types of weather. I really like how there is a website out there to teach kids about bad weather. Most kids think that bad weather is an excuse to get out of school and this will let them know exactly what is going on while they are out of school.

MovieMaker Project

We are starting the MovieMaker project this week. I am really excited to start this project. I missed class on the first day we discussed the topic because my sister was having her second child. I am going to do my movie on my new nephew and I am really excited about that. I guess I will see how it goes when I am actually working with the software

TURNITIN Assignment

The TURNITIN assignment was pretty cool. I had no idea there was something like that here on campus. I would have really liked to use it for some of my basic classes here such as ENG 102 and GHY 101. I had to write papers in there and I think it is a great tool to see if you wrote the paper legibly. I also think the TURNITIN software is great for teachers to allow their students to submit papers to see if they have plagarized or for the student to submit the paper and then the teacher go back and see if they plagarized.

Assistive Technologies

I like how we were able to work on this together in class. I am taking a special ed class this semester and most of the stuff we do in there is also working in groups. I am so excited that there is so much technology out there for students with disabilities. In our group,we focused on graphic organizers to help a child named Oscar. He was a student with a visual impairment and we thought that he would benefit from graphic organizers because it offers him images instead og text to study. He also had trouble reading small text so we said that offering him what words he would need would be in large text. The other tool we used was WebQuest. Webquest is helpful because it gives the child directions in the website. One of the major problems with the Internet is that there is so much information and it is often difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. Webquest eliminates confusion and lets you find the information in a timely and concise manner. In my own experience, my grandfather has demacular degeneration (I think thats the name of it). Anyway, he cannot see anything and by using ZoomText he is able to make the screen really big so that he can use a computer. Its amazing and I am so happy that they have stuff so that our disabled students can participate in the classroom.

Website Project

I really enjoyed the Website project. I had some problems with it like when I went to add images it would not take up the whole page like I wanted it to and I could not understand the Extra stuff page. I wanted to add a calendar and a countdown clock to summer vacation but I couldn't figure it out so I put a link to a Google calendar. I think the Website is a great tool though for future students and is a great resource for parents to get information on what is going on in classroom.

I am including a link to my website now. I hope that you really enjoy looking at and I think that it will be a great tool for the future. Thanks so much for introducing us to some useful tools in the classroom: http://sites.google.com/site/courtneysit365classproject/

Google Groups

We did not have a good experience with Google Groups. Some of our group members did not participate until after we got our grade back and we are now getting individual grades. I do like some things we found on Google such as the calendars, Google Earth, and Google Documents. These seem very helpful in the classroom and outside of the classroom. In the end, everyone came together mostly and worked on getting the Google Groups done. This is why I do not like to work in groups because other people are not dependable and I know in the work force I will have to work with others, but I am glad that in the end we were able to get individual grades :)

Here is a link to our Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/it-365-group-2?hl=en