Blog 4

After reading the article "Teaching Students to Use the Internet as a Research Tool", I was left in a pensive mood. I thought about how much of an impact technology has on students to help guide them on learning the foundation of skills that will later benefit them their educational career. For example, in my private high school, it was a requirement that for each class when given a research assignment or essay, the teacher had to take the class to the computer lab and show us the proper web sites and tools for our papers. After the computer presentation, we were then taken to the library to be shown how to do the same research but with documents, articles, and books. When given the time to work individually on the assignment, many of the students, myself included, went to the computers to do our research. Looking back, you would think it would have been easier to just walk over and find a book to research, but no. It is and was much easier to simply search though reliable links to find information. In addition, it was much easier to write the paper and do the proper citing, that to this day, has benefited me as a college student. From this memory, the article proved to me as with my experience, that technology research is imperative for students to know. It is highly important for students to know which websites are reliable and which are not. It is a necessity to educate students the basic foundation of researching, since in the article, many students are not properly educated how to search properly on the web. As a future teacher, it must be a priority to give students the information on how to go to basic search engines or to even check the ending suffix to see if its a credible source. This article opened my eyes as to realizing that it is important for me to explain to students every detail of looking at authors, addresses, dates, origin, source,etc. so it may give students the basic foundation of proper scholarly writing. By doing so, it will save me and future teachers the problem of originality and plagiarisms, and give students the lifelong tools to being excellent writers and online researchers.



After doing and learning the Excel program, i was completely pumped to use it as a teacher. The benefit of learning how to be organized and on top of all the students' individual scores. It made everything seem so much easier, quicker, and professional. I was so amazed by this program, that i even went home and showed my dad, who is a principal in L.A. I told him how he could teach his teachers how to use it so it could benefit them as a school. He too loved the idea! Thanks professor!

Blog 3

After reading the article, i was very impressed on how much effect technology has on students. Before, i thought the computer was a way to give the students something to do, an easy activity for both the teacher and students. After reading, my perspective changed. Last year, i worked in a Kindergarten classroom, where as part of a 'center' was to be on the computer and chose a program to do. Many of the students who used it were ones who had Spanish as a second language. The program they did helped them learn basic words and concepts by having them choose the appropriate picture. This experience was further enforced by this article, because it is a prime example of the many benefits technology has on students. The student was able to teach him/herself through problem solving and being independant." Problem solving required students to do more than memorizing facts...[it] manipulates geometric constructions and test conjectures,then revise their strategy and refine their own understanding (pg. 9)." This new way of problem solving is much more efficient because it keeps the student active and engaged. My experience and the article further reassured the idea that technology is a huge contributor to the learning process. It gives the student and teacher opportunities to both benefit.