Blog Post 6

I went back to my old school and looked over their websites, unfortunately, there were only two of them (Way to represent Niceville High School!).  Teacher websites were not a thing when I was in school.  Honestly, websites themselves weren't really a thing back then.  I visited the two sites available which were both Honors English sites, Mrs. Ellis' site:

And also Mrs. Mixon's site:

Unfortunately, I could not find a grade level, but given that these are Honors/AP English, it would have to be grade 11 or 12.  Both websites show a list of upcoming homework, have a slideshow with class slides, and also links to external resources for the students to use.  There appear to be discussion boards possibly for them that might allow class discussions.  In general, the layout of Mrs. Ellis site is much better looking and organized and pleasant to look at.

I could see using a website to distribute homework and send out class announcements.  It would be a handy resource to keep communication with parents up, especially these days as the parents have probably also been on the internet for the majority of their lives, so it seems natural to them.  Ideally, it would be nice to be able to exchange comments between the teacher and parents on the site, though given the normal way website comments run, that might not be a great idea.  I would also like to use the site as a discussion board for students to discuss the class activities amongst themselves.  The issue there would be getting them to actually use it.  Perhaps if they were prompted to do so, it might continue.

The tech sandbox trip was too short honestly.  We needed at least another 45 minutes to an hour to get through the whole thing.  As it was, my group only got to see the smartboards and the 3d printing before our time was up.  The smartboards are handy for some things, but I feel that they are perhaps a little overhyped.  I don't deny that they are significantly better than the reel to reel projectors we had, but in general, they really do not have much more than the "wow" factor.  Some things will be easier, and the ability to manipulate items in space is useful.  I see them being much more useful for the younger kids as they beg for interactivity, and once you reach the upper grades, you generally want the students staying in their seats to minimize disruption.  I'm sure as time goes by, they will expand the software and programs available and think of uses beyond what we have now.  As it is, for my purposes, it's not much more than a glorified whiteboard that I can put pictures on.  The same goes for the 3D printing.  I can see tons of applications for this in certain fields of study.  For Social Studies/History, it's not much more than a novelty though.  If we'd had them available back when I was in drafting classes though, I would have been in love.