Benefits of Classroom Blogs

Now and as blogs are used as an educational tool, it is useful to share with all educators the benefits of using these easily created blogs in classrooms.
To begin with, blogs can be used to present students’ work. This will motivate the students and keep the parents updated with their children’s work.
Class blogs can serve as a mode of communication between the teacher and students. Teachers can use them to post notes and homework assignments. Once the homework is done it can be immediately checked by the teacher who posts a comment giving the student an immediate chance to improve his work and giving other students the chance to learn from the mistakes of others. Moreover teachers can share teaching materials which saves their time.
Class blogs give the opportunity for students to conduct long discussions outside the classroom. With a blog, every person has an equal opportunity to share his thoughts and opinions.
Blogs also allow students to gain more experience in using computers, software and other technologies that are becoming a necessity and a prerequisite for being accepted in reputable universities.

On the other hand, students must be well trained how to use blogs and what to post on them. The availability of computers and internet access might be a problem. However, as an educator I strongly encourage using classroom blogs.

Student Centered Learning

Student-centered learning is the learning that places the student in the center of the learning process. In student-centered learning, students actively construct their learning at their own pace and using their own ways. With this style of learning students develop their social skills,thinking skills and meta-cognitive skills.By the end of this course I am looking forward to using ICT tools to make student centered learning my goal.I strongly believe that the challenges brought about to us by globalization dictate the fact of using student centered learning to prepare students for succeeding in their careers.We will face problems such as the inavailability of resources ,facilities and others but we should try our best.
This video gives evidence of the relationship between information processing and student centered learning.

Why a webquest?

A question that I asked myself at the beginning of the course,"What is a webquest and what are its benefits?"After today's class I strongly believe that webquests are extremely useful for my students.
Webquests motivate the students and strengthen their abilities to work in groups.Moreover students will be exposed to a vast range of information from different real resources.In addition to that webquests encourage critical thinking and technology integration.
What David Thornburg, a futurist and technology specialist, said dragged my attention.It emphasises the benefits of using webquests in teaching.The posted link explains Thronburg's point of view.

I added links to webquests that I will be using in teaching Biology and a link that helps you create your on webquest.

ICT as a Tutor

I was satisfied today and by the end of this lesson for I have strengthened my knowledge of using ICT as a tutor.From a personal experience I know the importance of drilling in teaching and this now became easier with ICT.Tutorials can help students with different learning abilities and can motivate them. Moreover, introducing games to lessons will break the daily routine and the students and teacher will enjoy their time.In addition to the above mentioned ICT programs,simulations are extremely useful in experiencing real life situatons without any risk and in applying sciences and knowing the outcomes in a virtual way.

For me and as a science teacher I found that simulations and tutorials are a necessity and games introduced to a lesson will increase the competition levels and hence the students' performance.

I hope that the links I added will be useful to all those in the Science field.

Adding games to blog pages

It was a nice idea to add games to the blog .Just follow the steps below and you can add any game:
1.Find the game by browsing or searching.This site is a good choice.
2.Click on the game you want.
3. Click down the 'embed' image to pull down the code and copy.
4.On your blog page,click on 'Edit Html', paste the code and publish the post.

Thes are the steps that I took to add the game below:

Softwares and Teaching

As a student I left the class many times with a vague idea about topics explained by certain teachers. They are those who do not plan well for the lesson. In my opinion, a well planned lesson is the organized one. It is the lesson where the concepts are represented in a logical coherent way. Presenting concepts in a clear way needs certain processes like concept mapping.

I am quite familiar with this process and in today’s ICT class I was very happy to be introduced to a software “Inspiration Software” which makes creating efficient concept maps an easy procedure. In addition it helps you create other diagrams. Below is a simple concept map I created in class and from which I can access websites.

Teachers are nowadays lucky to have such softwares which make their jobs easier.

This link will help you know more about this software and even download a free trial.

In addition to the link this video gives a clear example how this software can help and an example is given on how it is used in explaining Maths concepts.