Activ Inspire

This week in TPTE 486, we were introduced to the Promethean Interactive White Board (IWB) and ActivInspire. I think that this technology is great for the classroom. There are so many things that you can do with an IWB to teach lessons and for activities. I think that using this technology in the classroom will help get students involved and keep them engaged. As a future teacher, I am glad that we are going over some uses for the IWB because I had no clue how to use one prior to this class. I know that many schools have them in their classrooms so it is imperative that I am familiar with the technology and software. I look forward to working on my first flipchart for this class using ActivInspire and learning more about the Promethean Board.

Digital Images

I really learned a lot while working on digital images for the last few class sessions in TPTE 486. I had never used Picasa or Goggle presentation so it was nice to get some experience working with these applications. Teachers can use both of these applications for a number of activities across different content areas. I think that these web tools are great for integrating technology into the classroom.
I also did not have much knowledge about the copyright regulations for the web and the fair use policy. I think that this information is especially important for teachers because there is so much information out there that we could pull into our classrooms, but we still have to make sure that we are not violating copyright laws or committing copyright infringement. In addition, the web collections that we viewed in class are great resources that I can refer to to obtain digital images and a better alternative to just simply searching for images on Google.
Overall, I think that this section of the course is very relevant to my future teaching career. I definitely plan on using digital images to teach my students and now I know some different ways to incorporate them into my everyday lessons.

Here is the link to my classroom website where you can find the Picasa slideshow and Google presentation that I created: Ms. Ige's Tech Projects.

Resource Wiki

Compiling a resource Wiki for this course was a really great idea! I am really thankful for this particular project because I have been introduced to several helpful websites that I can use in my future classroom.
At first, it was challenging to find good websites, but then I referenced what we learned about website evaluation to help me find the additional resources that I needed to complete the assignment. It is important for teachers to have access to adequate resources so that they can supplement the material in their curriculum in a way that enhances a student's learning. Resources should be relevant and appropriate to the subject and grade level. I also really enjoyed looking at the sites that my peers in my content area found. I now have a pretty good selection of resources for all subjects and definitely plan on referring to our Resource Wiki in the future!