Final Blog...I learned a lot of new websites to incorporate into my curriculum.  I also became more familiar with google docs.  I like how anyone can access the docs and add to them if invited.  I did like to book somewhat.  I did not like how I had to copy some of the answers from the book and not really incorporate my personal experiences into the answers.  The work load was very heavy for weekly assignments.  Overall, I did learn some new things that will help me to expand my technology knowledge and that is what the class is about.  Thanks Louis. 

I am affected somewhat on software and professional development.  I have never reviewed software for purchase and I have never been asked by my school or district to review any.  The chapter and the checklist was helpful in case I would go purchase some on my own.  I would never really think to consider all of the items mentioned.  I think the checklist on greatschools.net was very easy to follow for advanced purchasers as well as first time buyers.  As for professional development in Milwaukee there are not many opportunities that I am aware of.  We do have five banking days built into our calendar and we have two hours of professional meetings each time.  I did enjoy the websites that were mentioned in chapter 10.  I will look at them and see if I can pass any useful information on to my colleagues.  

Technology in the Room

I watched a video that was entitled Giving "Em the Business. The lesson was geared toward first and second grade. Within a small group they had to create a food product to sell. They had to create ways to advertise it, sell it and make a profit. The video shows many detailed parts about the unit project. I teach community and products and could see myself trying to incorporate a mini-lesson using some of what was viewed. I think the most difficult part would be working together as a group and making group decisions. I will store the site in my profile and incorporate it in the spring.

I did enjoy using the different search engines. I found that many different websites came up with each search engine, things I have never seen before even after I have exhausted my google searches. I did also not know that you could add or subtract words, use - or + signs and use quotations in our searches. I thought they were only good for library catalog searches.
Word processing is very important in a classroom setting. My kids are not exposed to it as much as they need to be. My students have done a few small typing samples for me, logged onto the internet and typed in web addresses. I think if they were exposed more they would become stronger writers. This is because with the grammer auto correct they would have to think about their wording.

Presentations

After listening to three group presentations and gathering data for a power point on the history of the internet, I was pleased to learn a lot of new things.  I thought that the presentations would be redundant but each group found an interesting tidbit to share.  I think I started using the internet eightish years ago but did not know that it was in the works all the way back in the '50s.  I think that most of its users just take the net for granted.  What did we use to do with our free time?