CED 525 Class Two Reflection

As I often do, I found the collaborative nature of this class to be most beneficial. I most enjoy hearing what others have implemented in their classes and the applications that can be done when students are older. As a teacher of young students, it is often difficult to visualize how these ideas could be used with older students. My classmates help to bring that to life.

I found several ideas that could be of use on AT&Ts "Knowledge Network." Some of the sites I found were new or ones I had forgotten about (such as PBSkids.org). Others were new to me. While A&T has many valuable resources, I found Thinkfinity to be much more extensive and better maintained than AT&Ts. Even so, it is a wonderful resource that I feel is less well-known than Thinkfinity.

The portion of the class dedicated to online quizzes was way beyond the scope of what my students are capable of doing. I could see creating a quiz for a review type game to be completed as a class on the SMARTBoard or overhead projector. Other than that, it's beyond my students' level. However, it is an interesting concept.

I'm very skeptical of the idea of using social networking sites for instruction. As I've talked to my friends who are "Facebook Junkies," they've been impressed that we use Facebook in class. However, they too are skeptical of how to use it for instruction. Ideas I've received include setting up group meetings, discussing educational topics on people's walls, and forming groups from which study teams could be developed. I see a site like ePals being much more educationally focused and more plausible for school districts to consider allowing. In short, I see possibilities with social networking; however, I think that it needs to be given more consideration before we dive into it.