Using Technology in the Classroom Dr. Sharon Pitcher Associate Professor Educational Technology & Literacy Department

This presentation will include: Interactive PowerPoints Sites that Can Be Used Blogs Using Google Docs Seeing Technology in Action

From Perkins “Teaching is less about what the teacher does than about what the teacher gets the students to do” (Teaching for Understanding, p. 31).

Interactive PowerPoints Students proceed through PowerPoint on their own. Hot Links connect them to Internet Sites Advantages: Engagement increases because learners are exploring Internet sites, choosing to go at their own pace, and using visual, auditory (if sites have sound), tactile, and kinesthetic reinforcement.

Now You Try It Proceed at your own pace. Feel free to explore the websites that you will be taken to in whatever way you want. Then a slide will give you tips on how to create an Interactive PowerPoint like this yourself. The final slide will give you directions for the Internet Project. Enjoy!

Vocabulary Activities Can Make a Your Computer Into a Great Literacy Center Try some of these sites for ideas - This site has word games and trivia as well as a list of "easily confused words". (Grade 3 and above) -a few games that students will love The rest of this presentation is an interactive PowerPoint. Just keep going.

Some More Vocabulary Sites - Flip-a-Chip is a great game on this site. Children flip chips to make words using root words and suffixes, and then drag the words into sentences to make meaning. (Grade 3 and above) - This site contains many great vocabulary games for grades 3 and above.

And These - The Merriam Webster Dictionary designed this site. "Word of the Day" and "Word Game of The Day" activities are included on this site. Children can also build their own dictionaries and look up definitions quickly. (Grades 2 and above) On this site you can create and print customized word searches and crossword puzzles using vocabulary lists and spelling lists.

Some Comprehension Sites - many different activities Help students to think critically and have fun doing it. Many activities on these websites can be used to reinforce standards on the Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum

Creating Comic Strips Can Be Used to Reinforce Many Skills mix.com/comix.phphttp:// mix.com/comix.php Special thanks to Cory O’Brien, one of my graduate students for the suggestion of this site!

A Wealth of Materials on One Site This is a wonderful site to share with parents!

Poetry at Your Fingertips - Includes major poets, their poems, and the bios poetry to make you laugh features an article about Shel Siverstein HAVING STUDENTS CREATE THEIR OWN POETRY BOOKS CAN BE A PROJECT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER.

NON-FICTION AT THEIR FINGERTIPS on/ on/

Maybe You Want the Students to Do a Non-Fiction Book Report Includes reviews of non-ficition books for kids and information about authors.

Book Adventure.Com To end this section on websites, visit a site that Students can make their own booklist Teachers can monitor their reading by registering them and then having the students take quick quizzes.

Time to Switch to Something New - BLOGS Gives students a chance to talk in writing (you know how they love to talk). Open forum where they learn from each other. Could be used for a literature discussion instead of a discussion group. So much deeper than reflection logs. Could be used in Social Studies to share views on an issue. Could be used in Science to form a hypothesis.

Visit Some Blogs - Visit my blog to see how I replaced reflection logs in my classes with blogs Check out some other blogs This is an interesting site with all different blogs that kids can participate in Students can create their own blogs.

Creating a Avatar Your students will love this. They can create their own avatar, give it a voice, and put it on their own resources.

Check Out Wikipedia - I Bet Your Students Have wiki/Wikipedia A This is a great site to use to teach your students to question what they read on the ‘Net.

Google Docs - Something All Students with Internet Access Could Use at Home Go to - Click on “About Google” at the bottom or Google Docs on the choices. You need a Google account (which is free) to use the Docs. When you sign up tor the Google , make sure to include all of your s for access. Google Docs has a word processing program, a slide program similar to PowerPoint, and a way to share documents similar to a wikki. Your students can then use this at home as long as they have a computer with Internet access.

Some Interesting Sites for Teachers nology.com/forum/showthread.php?p= nology.com/forum/showthread.php?p= lesson plans for reading/language arts classes - Site is sponsored by The International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. Check out what teachers in Maryland are doing:

Designing Your Own Interactive PowerPoint Create the slide presentation. Many PowerPoint templates are available on the Microsoft website. Put in the website address - remember to put in the whole address. Then right click on the web address and choose hyperlink. The show is ready for the students to view.

If You Have Time… Check out - The Google Literacy Project And a Student Favorite

Your Internet Project Now you need to find a site to share with your class: The site cannot be one I used in this presentation and no site can be repeated. A special discussion board has been set up on Blackboard for this project. Make sure that you read all of the directions for the project there and review the rubric for the presentation included in Course Descriptions and Rubrics available under Course Documents on the Blackboard site. Since you want to make sure that you are not doing a site that someone else is doing Since you want to make sure that you are not doing a site that someone else is doing, you can set up the thread for your project by doing a first entry stating what site you are going to do before you start working on it.

Make Sure Site Provides Activities for Multiple Levels of Students Multiple levels of students means that there are activities for students in the primary grades (K-2), intermediate grades (3-5), and secondary (6-12). You can justify sites by explaining how some activities could be used for struggling readers on other levels. Make sure, if you are suggesting that activities could be used for older level, struggling students that the materials on the site would not be insulting to an older student. For example, the Starfall.com site is wonderful for primary with interactive beginning books and fun phonics activities, but totally inappropriate for students above 2 nd grade. If you are not familiar with the site, though, check it out because it is fun for primary children:

Setting Up a Thread To set up a thread on a Blackboard Discussion Board, you just need to Click on the Discussion Board Choose “Thread”from the menu at the top. You will see a window with a subject space and message space. Your Internet Site name goes in the subject space. In the message space you can put the information for the project or if you want to save the site, just put that this is the site that you are going to do and more will come. If you do this, then you just need to respond to the thread to add the rest of your information.

Responding to Others Part of the project is to respond to the sites of others either critiquing the site adding more information or showing other activities that can be done on that site to reinforce different parts of the Voluntary State Curriculum. Make sure to wait until the end of the week to check back to read other entries. You may want to save information about sites to put on your Extra Credit site if you choose to do one (See Course Projects and Rubrics for information about this). These websites will really come In handy for Clinic for both work with students and work with parents.

An Idea for Saving the Sites You may want to set up a word document on your desktop and then copy and paste information on interesting websites into your word document. Then you will have an easy to use list of great sites for future use.

Some Helpful Resources Available A wonderful PowerPoint created by Kathy Volk on the Voluntary State Curriculum is available under Course Document. Kathy led the development of the VSC for the Maryland State Department of Education. An external link for the Maryland Voluntary Curriculum is available under “External Links” in Blackboard. And if you have any questions just me at