Sherri+Jergenson

EDU 240 Sherri's FINAL ** 1.    As **//COGNITIVE MEDIATOR//**, the educator helps students to become independent learners who construct meaning by combining new information with their own background knowledge.
 * TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION
 * Discuss two assignments that you completed using a South Dakota State Standards topic in your major area of study. Describe each program and then tell how you could use that program with your students to enhance their technology skills when you start teaching.

A. I made a Jeopardy game on PowerPoint. PowerPoint is a slideshow program where you can put as much or as little information as you want on each slide. It has all the features of Microsoft Word, and is extremely easy to use. The first slide in my assignment had all the points assigned to the questions, and the next 52 slides were the questions and answer. PowerPoint would be a great tool to teach my students because you can do many things with PowerPoint. You can use this program for things such as book reports, class presentations, and many more. This program can really teach them how to be good teachers since it is so focused on presenting information.

B. I also used Microsoft Word to make a clickable worksheet. Microsoft Word is a Word Document that you can do just about anything with. You can use it to write papers, reports, even use it for making a photo album. There are endless possibilities with different fonts, word art, clip art, anything you would ever need in a paper document. This would definitely teach my students how to write well. It has spell check and a thesaurus right at the click of a button. Its so easy to use. It could help in their creativity when it comes to writing reports as well. ** **//RESEARCHER//**, the educator seeks to improve educational practices within the school setting, using an inquiry approach to serve students more effectively. It has helped me to view the information i find from all angles. When we did our presentation, even things that i thought might be self explanatory, you have to rememebr that not everyone thinks the same, so you need to cover all the information so that every child can understand it, not just those who might think the same way as the teacher. It has also shown me how much information is available to teachers. There are numerous sites out there chock full of resources, free and otherwise, for teachers of any grades. I now know the amount of information available to people in my field. 3.    As **//COMMUNICATOR//**, the educator is skilled in modes of communication that will enable effective communication and collaboration with other educators, parents, and families.
 * How has completing research in this class (reading the textbook, researching sites on the Internet, creating a presentation for class) helped you to become a better teacher candidate? **
 * Discuss one Internet site and one technology program that will help you to communicate to your students and their parents when you become a teacher? Describe how you could use each one to communicate to either students or parents when you are teaching.

A. One internet site that could be very useful in communication would be the blogger.com. You can make your blogs private, so that not everyone can access the information, but open to the parents of your students. That way there is no hassle with alot of take home papers that might never reach the parents but get lost or forgotten along the way. You can post what your class has been doing, and you could have individual blogs for each student, and their parents could post blogs asking questions. It would save on phone calls and e-mails as well.

B. A technology program that you could use to communicate effectively with your students and their parents is also Microsoft Word. As I said earlier, you can make just about any kind of document you would want to. If you would rather give the parents hard copies of information pertaining to class, you can make a document, or brochure and send it home with the students or mail it out. You can even attach a document made in Word to e-mails. There are many possibilities with Microsoft Word ** 4.    As **//EVALUATOR//**, the educator maximizes students’ learning by using a full range of formal and informal information-gathering processes in order to respond appropriately to student individual differences.
 * Discuss one web site and one technology program that you used and evaluated this semester? Why did you find each one useful and how might you use them in the classroom when you start teaching?

A. One web site I evaluated in our "Awesome Sites" was the History Channel website. They have video clips, interactive links and information pertaining to anything you could want to know about historical events. This would be so beneficial in a classroom because you could have your kids experience history in a hands on, exciting way, not just through a textbook. If i assigned a report about the life of an American Slave, they kids can go in, and actually view cabins slaves would have lived in, and scroll over items to see how they fit into the everyday life of a slave. It uses visuals, not just words to get the point across.

B. I researched Google Earth. This is a website, but also a technology site. This would be great in a classroom because you can see ariel pictures of any address in the world. If you were learning about major cities in your classroom, you could probably find street view pictures in that city so your students could feel like they were actually in the street. Another really cool feature is Google Sky. If you were learning about our solar system you can view all the planets and many stars. With the 360 degree rotation, you can view any direction. Its much more extensive than looking at pictures in a book. **