Reflection 2: CDK's Education Technology Place

There are many helpful links posted on CDK's Education Technology Place. This site is a quick way to gain access to different resources required for this course as well as the University itself. I also found the videos on the homepage very inspirational when thinking about my future as an educator. Moreover, it is a great source for additional blogs about integrating technology into education. The first blog among the list on the right to catch my eye was Free Technology for Teachers. In the most recent post, I learned about creating a Fake Facebook Wall which seemed a bit questionable at first. After reading further, I discovered a creative way to get students involved in learning about historical figures, characters in books they read, etc., and would love to use this idea in my future classroom. I also noticed that this blogger compiled a list of the most popular posts from the previous week, which helped me find the best posts without having to scroll through several pages of information. After discovering great ideas and information on this particular blog, I am anxious to browse the others included in the list on the right column of CDK's homepage.

Reflection 1: Technology Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles

After sitting down to peruse the blog, I quickly became overwhelmed at the wealth of information and resources available. The first post I came upon, Live, Interactive, and Free Webinars for teachers, introduced me to a learning community called "LearnCentral" where you can participate in free weekly webinars aimed specifically toward educators. The webinars come in a variety of topics related to the profession, and seem like they would be great resources for professional development. The only thing that couold make this better is if the university would approve these webinars to count toward our required professional development hours!! Next, Sites for Brain Fitness with games & Puzzles lists a few different websites for improving different brain functions. This would be a great resource for teachers to use in their own classrooms. For example, if a student were to finish their assignment early, the instructor could simply direct them to Smart-Kit to play games until the rest of the students finished up. After all, keeping students busy greatly reduces the number of classroom disturbances, creating a positive learning environment for all.