What I've Learned from edm310

I am from the era where computers were glorified type-writers. Thus my learning curve has been quite extensive. Not only have I learned to use the word processing more proficiently, I now know how to develop a spreadsheet and find and create formulas, create a blog and a website; none of which I knew anything about prior to this class.
Dr. Strange you have earned your brownies with me.
Though I hated the prospect of doing all of these, and have struggled to finish, I am grateful you insisted.
Thank you!
Terri Onderdonk

International educational bloggers

The most useful and successful web location for this parameter would have to be EDBlogger Praxis which connects you to local and international educators using technology in their classrooms. I have to say, just typing in international educational blogs got me to some quite risque spots. I think EdBlogger works well.
One interesting spot was that of telfordteacher which was a collaborative blog developed by teachers from the UK for a safe spot for educators and students.
The most interesting blog I ran across was the "explosion" of whiteboards taking the place of traditional blackboards. It sounds incredibly exciting. I wish I knew of a school close by using them. Use of technology, especially in grades outside of high school, just isn't there yet.

Blogs in K-12 Classrooms

I found a Mr. Langhorst of South Valley Junior High School in Liberty, Missouri using a website in very interesting ways. Mr Langhorst teaches eighth grade history. His website includes things such as "This week in class" which highlights what is covered in class each week. He even divides the week in color coded days to let the students focus on different areas of study on blue days and others on white days. Mr. Langhorst includes on his website the usual class pictures, units of study, contact information and the like but what I found interesting and unique was his podcasts or "studycasts" as he calls them. These studycasts are short podcasts on units of study such as "Our Constitution" and "The Revolutionary War." I wish I had these type of resources when I was in school.

Finding actual teachers with this sort of website was difficult at best but finding technology and software to facilitate this sort of learning/teaching was not difficult at all. This is a great segue to the information I received when I visited my school for my technology trifold brochure. The feeling was that the technology is there but limited is the money to purchase said products and teachers who are willing to learn a new way in addition to all of the paperwork they now have to have to prove they are doing their job.
I am not in the teaching field as of yet so making an educated comment on where the problem lies would be completely theory. I do however hate to see such a productive tool go virtually unused except by the seasoned few.

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access.al

The access site has innumerable advantages. One being that it gives small schools with small budgets access to curriculum that they would not otherwise be able to offer their students. For example, Verbana High School in Chilton County can now offer Algebra II, Algebra IB, English II, environmental science and career/tech coordinated studies via online learning through access. Without these online certified teachers Varbana could not afford to offer these courses.

Also through access you have a direct link to the Alabama Virtual Library. This site offers even more information, resources and support to teachers, parents and students. Just under the Elementary sub-site alone, there was everything from Britannica Online to LitFinder which helps find specific literature, from poems to plays.

One thing I wasn't sure of is how you go about getting a user name and password. Since I wasn't sure whether there was a fee, I'll just wait to ask Dr. Strange before I go any further. But this is a great site!!

Adding a Photograph to your Blog

Click on the photo icon. Browse to find photo. Open. Click OK. Select a location for your text. Select a site for your photo (or image). I recommend small unless you want to cover your blog.
This photo was taken from the internet.

John Strange Website