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I learned about Filamentality this week and how it can be used to create a “treasure hunt” for students on the Internet. I learned that it is important to check the websites that students will be looking at to make sure they do not have inappropriate content such as foul language. I learned that good websites include pictures, animation, and video. All of the things I learned about Filamentality will be helpful when I create a “treasure hunt” for students. I think that Filamentality might be helpful for visual learners because of the pictures and video. I think Filamentality can be a useful tool for teachers that are searching for a way to use technology for lessons. I think Filamentality can be helpful for students by having a list of websites related to the lesson. Having a list of websites related to the lesson may help keep students from getting distracted by looking at websites that are not related to the lesson.

I think that the articles about WebQuests are informative and offer information that is useful for teachers who want to create WebQuests and look at resources that can help them with WebQuests. The “FOCUS: Five Rules for Writing a Great WebQuest” by Bernie Dodge article describes what makes a good WebQuest, including organizing resources well, making students think about the information they learn, and the way in which the Internet is used for a WebQuest. I like that the article “The Student WebQuest: A Productive and Thought-Provoking Use of the Internet” by Maureen Brown Yoder has an introduction to WebQuests as well as examples to help show how the Internet can be used to help students learn about history or contemporary issues, for example.

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I learned some things about Wikis this week. I learned that it’s possible for a group of people to work on a Wiki website and discuss things on it.I learned that it is possible to revert to a previous version of a Wiki. I learned that Wikis are used for science because science is ever changing and it is faster to spread information by posting it on a website than it is to publish it in a book, for example. I learned that Wikipedia can block someone that vandalizes the articles contained within it. I also learned to not always post a new subject and respond under reply if I’m writing about a subject that has already been posted. I learned that when working in groups on a Wiki one person can be the author for a Wiki.

The article “Bridging the Digital Divide: A Building Block for Teachers” by Colleen Swain and Tamara Pearson describes how access to technology in schools can be limited and how teachers can overcome those limitations in order to use technology more in the classroom. The article includes websites for lesson plans that make use of technology. It also describes how a teacher’s knowledge and ability to use technology affects students’ work. Also mentioned in the article is how teachers can reflect on their use of technology to decide whether or not it is used more for teachers or for the students’ learning experience. The article describes how low funding for schools is not an excuse for not using more technology in the classroom and cites that High Technology and Low-Income Communities: Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information Technology can help schools with low funding. The article lists websites that can help with getting funding for technology such as computers.

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I thought the reading “Teaching Students to Use the Internet as a Research Tool” was interesting. I did not know about the subject-specific search engines described in the article and I was unaware of many of the websites listed for teachers. I had not thought about using a search engine’s help area to learn how to best do a search on something. I was unaware that search engines are organized without much intervention from people. I was also unaware that directories are organized more by people. I like that the article gave a step by step example of how to evaluate the credibility of a source by backtracking a website’s address.



I think there are some benefits to using a spreadsheet. One benefit of using a spreadsheet is that it is easy to organize information on it. Also, it is convenient to be able to use a formula and apply it to an entire column. Another benefit of spreadsheets is that the data on the entire spreadsheet is automatically updated after a value is put in. For example, if a change needs to be made to a grade in a spreadsheet about grades Excel automatically re-does the math for all other columns or rows that apply to that grade. Also, it is possible to put information from a spreadsheet into a colorful chart, which may be helpful for visual learners. I think the Excel Quiz covered information from the Excel tutorial and was probably intended to see if the people that took it understood and/or remembered what was covered in the tutorial.