Blog Journal 6

For this assignment I looked at the school website for Leon High School, grades 9-12. I visited a few of the teachers' class pages, which were very easy to access. The home page, as you can see, has a tab specifically for teacher websites, and from there users can find sites organized alphabetically by teachers' last names. Many teachers had no information at all on their class pages, which I believe is a disadvantage for students and their parents. However, some pages were very useful and informative. Some teachers initially include background information about themselves, such as their degree, where they attended college, and how long they have been working at LHS. Many teachers included a course syllabus, contact information, a class calendar, and other similar resources. Additionally, many teachers included academic links, documents, and resources for students.

As a teacher, I would want to use tools to help me plan and document lessons. This type of technology will turn a potentially long, tedious task into a simple one. I, as well, feel like a teacher website would be very useful. I want to teacher young children, so the website would mainly be targeted towards parents. On my website I could link monthly newsletters and offer important information and resources to parents. I would also set up a class calendar so parents can track their child's learning and schedule.

The technology sandbox in the College of Education was very fascinating. We, obviously, talk about the development of educational technology frequently in our class, so it was beneficial for us to see these tools in person. In the sandbox, I tried out the iPad software that processed letters as they were placed on the desk surface. I thought this was very cool and can be applicable to students of all ages in multiple different ways/subject areas, such as learning geography or practicing math problems. As we discussed as a group, virtual reality has the potential to be very useful for students as it grows in terms of accessibility and popularity. It can show students different places around the globe and other various material.