Sunday, July 20, 2008

A Website that can be Useful in the Classroom

I recently found a website entitled internet4classrooms(www.internet4classrooms.com). The purpose of this website is to "help teachers use the internet effectively". This site was created in November, 2000 by Susan Brooks and Bill Byles as a way to assist teachers by providing free Internet resources to use in their classroom instruction. When you click on the All about Internet4classrooms, there is an index of the icons used on the site and what they represent. The home page contains seven main links that will direct you in the desired area. These areas include Site Map, Links for K-12 teachers, Assessment Assistance, On-Line Practice Modules, Daily Dose of the Web, Searching, and In-School Integration Support.

The teacher-related links cover all of the core courses as well as several electives courses. There are subject-specific links, resources links, and links covering anything from character education to Web 2.0 Resources. Daily Dose of the Web will give you information on websites that change content on a daily or weekly basis. Assessment Assistance will help teachers with assessments ranging from pre-k levels all the way to end of course exams at the high school level. On-Line Practice Modules has step-by-step tutorials for learning applications used in K-12 classrooms. Some of the modules included here are: Word, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Excel, and Dreamweaver. In-School Integration Support includes workshops that are available for schools/districts to provide training for teachers to help them make effective use of technology in their classrooms. Some workshop titles include Non-mathematical uses for Excel and What can a Five Year Old do with a Computer?.Searching the Internet contains 47 search engine titles and a brief description on each as well as a list of seven kid safe search engines and their descriptions.

Overall, I think that this site contains a wealth of information that any teacher/educator could easily incorporate into their own classroom. I plan to share this website with my colleagues when the upcoming fall semester begins. I look forward to using this site in my own classroom.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!