My experience with the activity in my course's learning module, searching for
and managing online educational materials, was fairly simple, yet valuable. To
be honest (and I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this), until this course, I
had not used Google Scholar. I was not even aware it existed. In the past, I
had used Google to find what I needed. The Quia.com website, for example, I
came across years ago by doing a Google search for web-based testing (or maybe
online testing). Then, like now, many results came up. Back then, like now, I
spent a great deal of time reading and sifting through Google’s results to
identify the most appropriate site for my needs. Using just Google, I found
many sites pertaining to web-based testing, but at the time, most were not what
I was looking for. It’s important to mention, at the time, the resource
(Quia.com/web) came up on the first page of search results, while now listed on
the third (and really, who goes much past the first page of results?). In any event, I suppose this is another example of the ever changing World Wide
Web and the resources it contains.
Similar to Google, I found many of the traditional search
engines (Ask.com and Yahoo!) yielded similar results. However, I did find Google
in Education to very useful. By clicking “For Teachers” you are linked to
Google’s site for teacher resources. Personally, I found myself more interested
professional development. The Training and Development Link (bookmarked and
shared) brought me to a page that highlighted tools, by Google, to support
teachers furthering their own knowledge in various categories. Here, there are
links to videos, tutorials, Webinars, and trainings available through Google,
which I felt impressive that so much had been made available in one location.
To continue with the assignment, while I use the UCF library’s search tools, I
find myself frequently frustrated by all the options and choices available. It’s
similar to why I despise going grocery shopping…there are too many options to
choose from! Google Scholar is a lifesaver and a great supplemental tool to the
UCF library. Continuing the activity, we were asked to search for
a research article written by one of our professors. Using Google Scholar made it simple!
I found an article written by Dr. Gunter and Dr. Kenny about instructional
gaming, which is an area of educational technology that interests me as well. On a more practical note, I take my Comprehensive Exam this March and will be
compiling materials in preparation soon. I foresee being familiar and
comfortable with Google Scholar and Diigo (required in this course) as a great way to gather and manage the
documents and resources I will use to be successful on my exam. Further, I
imagine the citation feature will be equally useful and valuable.
BrainPop, eSchool News, Google in Education and Atomic
Learning resources addressed NETS-T standard 5, as they each offer online
professional development opportunities for technology and technology
integration into the classroom. I found Atomic Learning through a search of our
district’s website, and feel it quite comprehensive. Once in, you can search through
a variety of lessons, which instruct on how to use specific types of
technology. Additionally, the user has the ability to search for lessons after identifying
search criteria such as class subject or software preference. BrainPop’s
Webinar site serves two purposes. First, users can register and attend live
webinars on topics BrainPop provides. The second, the user can view and learn
from past webinars they have archived. I felt BrainPop and eSchool News,
specifically, are helpful for this and future classes as we often attend
Webinars on Ed Tech topics and reflect on what we learned and experienced. I
believe my suggested resources NETS-T Standards 2. Each supports a teacher’s ability to design,
develop, and evaluate digital learning experiences, for their students (standard
2). Each is, in some facet, a resource that can be used to further and enhance
digital lessons.
To wrap up this activity, after experimenting with different
search engines, I was able to utilize and locate quite a few interesting sites,
which I shared with the course. Using Google Scholar was my biggest Ah-ah
moment, as research has been a challenge of mine in the past. Upon searching through our
State and County Websites, I would describe the State’s website to be confusing to navigate and less useful (to me) as a teacher. My county’s website
(surprisingly) was more useful to me as I was able to find links, sites, and
support that I could use NOW. On Diigo, I chose to share resources that my
peers would find useful in their teaching as well as throughout this program.
This link will direct you to my list of resources I shared with the class:
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