Education and Technology

Technology Tools
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Free Useful Online Tools

Google Docs and Spreadsheet

This tool enables students to work together inside or outside of class and at any time. Work can be posted and can send to group members for collaboration. Anyone can edit the documents at his or her convenience anywhere he or she prefers. We have been using this tool with our group assignments, and it is quite helpful and accessible to all. I will include using Google Docs and Spreadsheets with my class especially for group projects.

Web Math

This online tool for Mathematics offers users instant help on math problems. All you have to do is input a problem and it will give you step-by-step directions on solutions. This site can be helpful for my students with specific learning disability. Students that are not good in Mathematics are said to have a disability called dyscalcula. With the help of this site, students can practice at home or at school solving problems. It is also a fun way of working with math problems sicne computer is being used and not just lecturing and writing which some students find boring.

Firefox

“Firefox is a web browser created by Mozilla, the original creators of the Netscape series of browsers. Version one was released in November 2004 and quickly gained new fans because of its open source license and multitude of features. Open source means that the source codefor the program is available to anyone who cares to download it.”
Firefox offers features such as pop up blockers and the advance privacy settings. It also has tabbed browsing in which you can open several website in your windows. The browser also provides has several advanced search options. Firefox allows you to go straight to the website that provides information about your topic without getting into other unnecessary sites.
What I like about Firefox is that tripod editing works here. It allows me to access tripod easily without going through hassles as what I am experiencing when I used Safari.

Moodle

A course Management system (CMS), Moodle is a “free Open source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities.” [http://moodle.org]

There is no instruction on how to use the website. It is the teacher who has to guide the students on where to go and how to use the available features. The website is manageable and easy to understand. Students can access the calendars, the schedule of events, the assignments, and their grades. In this way student can monitor their progress as well as the due assignments for each week. Students can also work ahead by checking on the assigned tasks each week for the entire semester.

Moodlle offers communication feature that allow teachers and students to communicate in and out of the classroom. At first, I was having problems ensuring that I already uploaded my due assignments. However, later on I learned that once you uploaded an assignment, it will provide you with the date and time it is uploaded as an acknowledgement.

As an aspiring teacher, I can use this in my class to provide my students a chance to experience the services of Moodle which can help enhance their learning. For a five star rating, I gave this site a four star rating.

In Pictures

This site offers free tutorials on how to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Dreamweaver, and Html/CSS by providing step-by-step picture guides. Since I am a Special Education Major, this site will be helpful for my students with mental retardation, autism and specific learning disabilities because it guides them using a program through pictures. With the use of pictures, students can easily understand the purpose of the program. Most of all students will not get bored of reading text instructions because instructions are provided using visual representations. Check out this website, http://inpics.net/, it is totally helpful not only to students, but to all users.

Tripod

This site [http://www.tripod.lycos.com] allows users to build their own site and have their own photo album. It offers varieties of pictures that can be downloaded and used on your website. There are more choices when it comes to designs and lay outs. I can say that with this tool sky is the limit. You just have to be creative, patient and all to be able to get the best out of this tool. Although, it is hard to access the editing page of tripod, it is worth all your effort once you see your publish page. It allows students to be more imaginative in designing their sites. The site offers a lot of opportunities for students to explore the site by providing different features.

iKeepBookmarks.com


It enables you to set up a personal account in which you can put all of your favorite pages in one place. The good thing about this site is you can able to access your favorite websites anywhere and at anytime. It provides an easy way to share your favorite sites with friends and colleagues. Students can keep all the educational sites they need for their classes without having to write it or keep saving it in whichever computer they are in since it offers to store all your sites for you. In the future, I will recommend my students to save all important websites through iKeepBookmarks for future references.

Online Tools

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