Group+8

Below you will find a video created in order to describe some of the ways we would like to use technology in our classrooms. The video was formatted in a an interview type set-up, and we each discussed some of our favorite ways in which we would like to integrate technology into our subject areas.

media type="youtube" key="LQDXZw15NZU" height="344" width="425" Photo Sources Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia By: One Laptop per Child http://www.flickr.com/photos/olpc/2606362543/

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia2 By: One Laptop per Child http://www.flickr.com/photos/olpc/2606362809/in/photostream/ New Classroom by: Editor B [] What is That!? by: [|**Leonid Mamchenkov**] [] The work rarely leaves the classroom by: Misterteacher [] classroom by: Liz Henry [] Back in the Day by: [|**garybirnie.co.uk**] [] Blogs are an easy way to reach a broader audience by: Misterteacher [] Use read/write web in place of old methods by: Misterteacher []

reviewed by Alanna Constance

Sight Words with Samson www.sightwordswithsamson.com by: Alanna Constance Comments: This website is great. i feel that it really applies to children learning skills at a early age. When the site first opens there is music and a character to keep the children interested in sight words. I also was drawn to to the website because it's very kid friendly. I felt that any child even if they were reviewing sight words could use this site and be able to play along.

http://www.mrcpl.org/literacy/lessons/sight/index.html By: Alanna Constance Comments: Upon entering this page it comes to a screen that allows anyone to open a game to help learning. I'm someone that has grown up with younger children around all the time and have had to help them learn. With the technology on this site children won't feel discouraged if they don't understand how to read right away. It makes it easy to find sight words, put sentences together, and read whole sentences. This site allows parents to help their students at home using the technology found at schools.

I liked the games that this site has to help students learn how to read. I thought the games were at a level appropriate for the early reading ages and they were fun enough to engage the students' interest. What I didn't like about the site was that there was no way to navigate back to the home page from the games other than clicking the back button multiple times. This would make it difficult to use this website in class because students would most liekly have to re-enter the URL every time they wanted to start a new game.- Kayla Hilliker

[|web_pg_rubric.docx]

TVO Kids Reviewed by Emily Blumerick [] Comments: I felt that this website would be extremely helpful in a classroom for elementary children. It is packed with games and activities that promote learning for all ages. The website was pretty well organized but it seemed a bit busy. A parent might be necessary to navigate the website successfully for younger children but older child should be able to navigate the site easily. As far as bias, there are no advertisements on the website but there are some mentions of the mother site.

The first things that caught my attention on this site was on the right hand side. It gave a choice for what language you needed help in. This site is a bit busy like Emily said but it gave good information to aid students in learning English or other languages. - Alanna Constance Literacy Center Reviewed by Emily Blumerick [] Comments: I found this website to be very helpful for young children. The website is geared towards children in preschool and kindergarten. The site has the option to be viewed in multiple languages which makes it accessible to international children. The website has many games and activities that are all appropriate for the age of children that would be on the site. The website is easy to navigate but it is for younger children so they should be accompanied by an adult.

I liked the simplicity of this page, but I also found it a little boring. I also didn't like how the very first page was for donations and you had to serach around to find the actual games. It is definitly a good source for younger children because it focuses on the basics like the alphabet and numbers. I personally wouldn't use this in my classroom because I feel the children would benefit more from other websites or activities that push them more. I would however use it with my own children when they are just starting to learn letters and numbers. ~Katie Droelle My website review rubric and comments. [|Katie's Web Reviews.doc]

Cool Math 4 Kids Reviewed by Katie Droelle [|Cool Math 4 Kids]

Comments: I found this site to be extremly interesting and useful. It was well organized with links to things to help kids better understand math. There are sections about all the basic math functions and more. Each section is broken down into different lessons that addresses how each function works and shows different ways of preforming each function. There are some limitations to the site. For one thing there is advertising along the sides that could be distracting to kids. Another thing is that some of the material isn't relative to my age group. I could include this in my classroom as a free time activity. If the kids are done with what they need to do they can go online and play. Some of the lessons could also be applied to the classroom.

I thought that this website was really neat. It seemed a little too busy though. The graphic with the mouse seemed like it would confuse children a little. I thought that the games and activites that were on the site would be helpful for many different age groups. EB

I really like the colors on the homepage of this website, but I found the moving numbers to be a bit distracting and think that young children would maybe have a little too much fun playing with the mouse and not wanting to get to work. I loved the games that helped the children with their math concepts, and thought that they were geared to many different ages, but each game was at a good level for the age of the child that would be working on that particular area. Overall, this is a good site for students who need help with their math, or who just like playing the math games, which is also a way to build a solid math foundation. - Kayla Hilliker

Math Playground Reviewed by Katie Droelle [|Math Playground]

Comments: This website is better for teaching math concepts in a simple way. The site is not cluttered and there are simple colors. It includes movies that describe things like prime numbers and how to add fractions. There are also games that apply to real world situations. One limitation is that the site has no author listed. It is created by a lot of different teachers. There are also some things on the sides that could be distracting to students. I feel the videos would be an excellent source for the classroom. They explain things simply and are interesting. The games on the site could be used during extra time.

I thought this website was great! I thought that all of the games were really easy to play and understand. Some of the games though weren't that fun and lost my attention... but I guess that's how alot of internet games are. I feel that this website could aid teachers in math assistance at home and could also help parents at home understand their students math homework. -Alanna Constance

Here is the rubric to my website reviews. Below are comments. [|Kayla's Web Reviews.doc]

Reviewed by Kayla Hilliker [|Panwapa Kids] Comments: Overall I found this website to be geared more towards a place for kids to play and watch videos. While the site does promote learning of other cultures and languages, the videos and games are slow moving and quite repetitive. This site did not feature the things I was hoping that students would be able to take away from it. Limitations include time constraints and whether or not students would actually be able to learn enough that is applicable to the classroom. The benefits of this site is that it would teach about diversity and there are options that allow students to play in an English and Spanish/Mandarin/Japanese/Arab mixture of languages.
 * Panwapa**

I thought this was a good site for enforcing the idea of acceptance of everyone. I really liked how they have a movie about a child in another country and about that child's life. It is an easy way for students to be exposed to other cultures without reading about it or being told. That was really the only thing I really liked about the website. I felt there wasn't a whole lot for the kids to participate in. It would be a good idea though to include videos about different cultures in you classroom. ~Katie Droelle

Reviewed by Kayla Hilliker [|Fact Finder Kids' Corner Website] Comments: This site did have some very cool featured facts about the United States, but it was not organized in a very aesthetically pleasing manner. When you click on a state to find out facts about it, it shows the state flag, a couple of facts and then a giant table of data from the US Census. Since this site is supposed to be geared towards 2-5 grades, the tables are not a good choice in order to keep the user's interest. Limitations of this site are few, other than the fact that it is not as fun or interactive as I had hoped. This site would be useful if students were doing a project on the United States. They would quickly and easily have access to almost any numerical facts they want to know about whichever state they are researching. Since this site is hosted by the US Census Bureau, the information is sure to be up to date.
 * Fact Finder Kids' Corner**

This site seemed very informative but not very interactive. I don't think that students will stay at the site very long. The information given on the site is all the information that they could find in books. Other than that, I thought the website is well designed and colorful. It is really easy to navigate. EB