NETS-T III

“Model Digital Age Work and Learning”

Artifact 1: Word Exploration

I am fairly proficient with Microsoft Word. I think that in this day and age, you have to be. It is essential not only as a teacher but also as a student. Everything is used in some form of a word processing program, whether it is a term paper or a newsletter. As a future teacher, I hope that my students are knowledgeable in this type of software and if not, I can confidently teach them because I am above average on my skill level. I can promote just by setting an example and that is what teaching is about.

Artifact 2: Web 2.0 Database

During the course of this class, I have been bombarded with numerous sites that interest me as a future teacher. So when we did this database, I thought it was a wonderful idea. I can use this database throughout the rest of my college career and during my professional teaching. Sites like Dimdim and Prezi are extremely useful tools for college courses and I plan to implement them. I never realized the almost unlimited amount of resources available for free on the Internet and I think that documenting these sites will definitely aid me in my teaching career or my path leading up to it.

Artifact 3: Excel Gradesheet

I’ve never really “excelled” a Excel(this pun WAS intended). I’ve never really seen what kind of use I can gain from it and the knowledge that I do have of it, I have gained from taking a computers course. I am at the point to where I can easily navigate through Excel until it gets complicated. And by complicated, I mean formulas. If given step-by-step directions, I can easily do it. It’s just a different program that I am still getting used to. I like that in this assignment we learned how to make a grade sheet. I think that this assignment will come in handy in the future. Even if they school provides grading software, it is still nice to know that I could easily make up my own grade sheet if necessary. I can see how some teachers might have difficulty if this was the only software available. I am constantly hearing my professors talk about how even with the grading available on blackboard, they still use an excel worksheet to keep track of grades. Just as an extra backup. Technology fails everyday so I wouldn’t toss all my “grades into one program.”

Artifact 4: Website Evaluations

As before with the software evaluations, it’s amazing to see the extremely different options out there. What is amazing to me is that some sites are not user friendly at all. Especially some educational sites such as Merlot. But then it’s like night and day with sites such as the Smithsonian Institution and Thinkfinity. These website evaluations helped me be more aware of how to judge a site on it’s content and design. I never really though design was that important of an element in a website but it does matter when something is contrasting really bad or everything is jumbled up on the page. I can now look for these differences in a website in order to find the best one in which to implement.