C4T #1

For my first C4T, I was given Steven Anderson. His blog Blogging about the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom was very interesting to me. I really enjoyed reading all the information that he had on his blog. I liked that he was blogging with children around the world he said it's possible and easy to do. I didn't know that teachers could talk to students from different places until I came into EDM310. In his first blog post, Going Global- tips and resources for Global Collaboration he talks about many ways to talk to people across the world. He loves Twitter and talks about all the reasons people should have them especially any type of educator. Skype is another tool that Mr. Anderson uses which is a video chat. Teachers and students should have all different types of resources to get connected with others around the world. I think it's a great idea to have these tools to use, especially since schools are moving to all types of different resources other than just books. Things have changed since we were little, kids are no longer going to school with just pen and paper. Now children are expected to know what a computer is and how to use it and not just for playing games on them. I liked how at the bottom of his blog he inserted links to show and talk about different tools as well. Here are some examples: QuadBlogging, Skype Classroom,Guide Management.

I commented to Mr. Anderson saying "I'm in EDM 310 and I study at the University of South Alabama" I went on telling him that I thought that using Skype in the classroom was a great idea and that I really want to use all the types of technology in my future classroom.

Steven Anderson's second blog post Google Tools to Check Out, was by far the best blog out of the two. Google is an amazing tool to use. He goes in detail about using Google and everything it has to offer. He even goes on to say "that Google is his favorite search engine." I agree with with Mr. Anderson, Google is the best in my opinion. I can type in anything and within seconds it provides hundreds of links that describes what I am looking for. He talks about many different things that Google has to offer like, Google keep, Google Mars and others. The one sight that really interested me was Google for Teachers . I didn't know that teachers had their own site and that no matter what you were looking for, all you have to do was search in Google for Education.

My comment to Mr. Anderson was that I am a huge supporter of Google, but I did ask him a question about Google for Teachers. I'm know that teachers share lesson plans and other things online,but is it okay to use other teachers work like that? I wouldn't want to become a teacher and then been known as plagiarizing. Would this even be considered something like that? You can find all sorts of things online and I think it's a great thing to have and use.