Technology Tools Assessment #2

November 28, 2008

Technology Tools Assessment

Taking the Audio - Visual class this semester was really a big challenge for me; to be honest I was not computer literate. I took the class, I only knew how to check and send email, which I normally did at work. This semester introduced me to a number of different technological tools that I’ve never seen in my entire life. At first, I was so scared and confused. After I overcome my hesitation. I decided to take it as a challenge. I am going to assess eight of technological tools that I learned over the semester. I will also include my ratings using my own pictures. I will give two thumbs up for the highest ratings. And for the second to the highest I will give one thumb up. You will see two hands swaying for Ok, not so bad and two thumbs down for the least rating.

Free Spirit
http://www.freespirit.com/index.cfm
Free spirit exists to provide resources for children, teens, parents, educators, counselors and anyone interested in supporting young people with educational information that deal with real-life issues. Resources and tools such as books, CD’s, posters, and web links on the web site address social and emotional health and offers learning materials with excerpts forms for adults to utilize at home or in the classroom. One thing that I like is that there are few items such as pointers or reminders about specific that are downloadable and free of charge. I was a little disappointed because most items must purchase. And for those that are in a budget, I think that many items such as books and CD room with reproducible material are a little expensive. There is no disclaimer fees involved in getting authors to speak at events, workshops, etc. it seems that the author will make himself/herself available without a fee but sometimes along the lines fees and expense may apply. In conclusion, Free Spirit has a lot of advantages and disadvantages. The advantage to using this website is they offer a lot of educational information that deal with real life issue. And the disadvantages there are a lot of items that you have to purchase. Still, depending on the type of information you need. So I will give Free Spirit Two hands swaying.






You Tube
http://youtube.com/
You Tube website are a search engine in which one could search subject and receive visual images, demonstrations, or instructions. This website has positive benefits especially for those who learn better through visual demonstrations rather than verbal. On the other hand, this website is open to public. Anyone could upload information. The credibility of the website is lessened. There are many benefits to the use of you tube. One could virtually initiate a search on any subject and get results from that search uploaded from all over the world. Like for example, I needed a sample film clip of bread mold growth for my experiment I found various samples that I can use. There are also many educational resources that may retrieved by searching for educational subjects. However, not all searches have educational ties, many are fictional or comedic, and some are totally gimmicks with headlines that are misleading. Hence, there are also many disadvantages to the use of you tube as a reliable search engine. Since the website is open to all and anyone could upload digital recordings or images which make it difficult to accept the credibility of the search. There is also an abundance of links to sexual explicit websites such as You Porn. There are also many malicious uploads of violence, suicide, even genocide. These images and video clips have a negative effect toward education, which upholds positive educational benefits to children. You tube has many advantages and disadvantages as an educational search engine. One advantage is definitely the ability to use visual stimulation as a learning tool. And one of the disadvantages is the links to pornography and violence. But still, depending on the type of research being conducted, it can be a very informative educational tool open to all with internet access. I will give You Tube a one thumb up.






Fact Monster from Information Please
http://www.factmonster.com/index.html
Fact Monster from Information Please website provides children, parents and educators with vital reference materials, homework help, games, polls and features on subjects ranging from sports, math, world news and geography. According to the one of its press release, the site is updated daily. So, the information read by web visitors is constantly expanded and always current. The site is devoted to collecting facts and interesting bits of knowledge for kids. There are a number of interesting features on this site including: The Fact Monster Blog an on line forum broken down into boys and girls and further broken down by age groups 6-10 and 11-14. Another source is the reference desk; it has six great resource areas like, homework center, timeline, almanac, atlas dictionary and encyclopedia. Each of these areas is further supplemented by more resource tools. Analogy of the day provides an analogy quiz and the web browser can figure out the best answer. Today’s history sites historical facts of the month. Today’s birthday is a page that features famous person in the history. Daily word quiz, one chooses the correct context in which the word of the day is used in a sentence. This is another interesting and fun web site for facts and references, brain teasers and activities. What I found odd was in the section for World and News the only news link featured were headlines generated from the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). I think it would be better rounded to have a news link from the U.S. and from Asia. This is just a minor disadvantage. I will still give Discovery Education one thumb up.












Discovery Education’s Discovery School
http://school.discovery.com/
The Discovery Education’s Discovery School is committed to making teaching and learning an exciting rewarding adventure for students, teachers and parents. The site provides innovative teaching materials for educators, useful and enjoyable resources for students and smart advice for parents about how to help children enjoy learning and do well in school. There are several features in this site including: Brain booster includes brain teasers, lateral thinking, logic number and math play, word and letter play and more. Curriculum center is a one stop shop that you can find classroom activities in a fun way. Kathy Schrock’s Guide for education is a site in an internet found to be useful for enhancing curriculum and teacher professional growth. Teacher store, all products including books, CD roms, video, etc. are available and supported by the National Education Standard. Puzzle maker is another fun tool that creates and print customized word search and crossword and math puzzle. Science Fair Central is another one stop shop guide for students and educators to create science fair project. There is great information on this web site and it is fun to go through, but not everything is free. There are some things you have to purchase or sign up to be a member of but overall, this is a very informative – and fun – site. That’s why I will give Discovery Education’s one thumb up.












Moodle’s Thinking Distance Classroom
http://www.gaughin.thinkinggistance.org/
Moodle’s Thinking Distance is an on line class. To be honest, I never had a class that based on line. This is the very first one that requires a lot of on line search. In fact my other professor never liked us to do an on line research some said that it is not reliable. When the class started I was so surprised. Especially when Dr. Cyrus showed us the site at first it is very complicated. But when I was introduce to the audio visual class Moodle’s site I am about to drop the class. To be honest I never have any computer class but I have my own pc just sitting at my house. However after a few weeks I find that Moodle was not difficult at all. It is very easy to navigate, which is a plus factor for me because I am not good in exploring especially if I am under stress. Moodle is really the best. First I can communicate with my professor and classmate better. I can keep tract my assignment and check the upcoming events. I can even view my grades which I can work better if I don’t make good on my other one. I can even view my professor comments on my home works. And if we have a group work and presentation we can communicate fast and professor can even view it. I like everything that I needed to know about my audio visual class just one click and you are already there. All the information and resources are provided; it really helps forgetful students like me. So far, audio visual class is almost done I never have any problem with Moodle. My only concern is whenever I submit my work my name does not appear on the assignment submission area, but that is very minor. In conclusion Moodle site was really an effective way of class communication I love everything on it. That is why I will give Moodle two thumbs up.






Delicious
http://del.icio.us/
Delicious is a bookmarking site that help user to bookmark sites, give description and organized them into a right categories. To be honest I never know that I can save and keep the site that I like. I can even bundle all the tags. Not only that I can keep and save my favorite sites on line. Another one that I like is the networking, people can put their friends name and be a guest and view their favorite site. Delicious was a site of discovery and learning it can link me to other peoples interest. I found myself getting use of it more often. Although I am fond of using Delicious site I found a minor problem. I am having hard time in creating a bundle. After putting my tags into bundle I can still see some tags that are still unbundle. But this is just a minor problem. Still I will give Delicious one thumb up.












Mozilla Firefox
http://mozillafirefox.com/
Mozilla Firefox was first introduced in November 2005. Mozilla is actually a non - profit organization and Firefox is a current project of Mozilla which is a web browser. Mozilla Firefox is raising competitor of Internet Explorer since it is release. Firefox is not hard to learn and did and it did not take long to work around with its features. The thing I like about the features is when you type your e mail or blog it has auto spell check. Another fun feature about Firefox is having additional downloads for online games and best of all the Firefox has a faster speed. The main thing that I don’t like about Firefox is compatibility. Some websites do not show well in Firefox, and needs you to view them with Internet Explorer. Second is that it takes a lot of memory to function. Firefox freezes and close when many tabs are open. Third of all anyone that don’t use DSL services all downloads cannot be interrupted. Firefox is actually design for people using high speed internet, which means people with poor dial up services will have troubles along the way. Mozilla Firefox is a fun web browser, but honestly I am not comfortable of using it. I will give Mozilla two thumbs down.




Google
http://www.google.com/
Google website is a search engine in which one could search for any subjects and topics that anyone need. To be honest I am a yahoo kind of person. Maybe because I was introduced to yahoo for a long time and I am a type that doesn’t explore. To be honest I am not aware that I can try other website than yahoo. However this semester, I had to set aside yahoo to sign up for a Google e mail address for my Audio visual class. I discover a lot on this site. There are a lot of applications that Google has to offer. I Google, blogger and the Google earth are very interesting sites. When Dr. Cyrus introduced us to Google I was so amazed, imagine all applications are in one page, like taught of the day, the daily literature quote, jokes of the day, even games, you name it and they have it. All of the applications are in one page not unlike other sites that you have to link into different page. Blogger is one of my favorite sites, I never knew that I can create, upload and publish my work. I find myself using blog all the time. Chatting is also available in this site and it is very easy to use you don’t need to download another feature or open another program. Another application that my son introduced is the Google Earth. This site you can locate even the smallest place all over the world. Google has a lot to offer it has multiple applications and functions that are very easy and fun to use. I will give Google two thumbs up.