Website Creations and Connected Education

I really like the step-by-step video on Weebly, and plan on referring back to this while creating my final project. The video gave good ideas on different pages on the site and rearranging the page. The video literally gave almost everything that you need to know about Weebly, from creating column layouts, which is a good way to organizing your page, to pictures for entertainment and reinforcement of your points. It was cool to see how to create images as hyperlinks with short descriptions and opening them into a new window for the visitors on your website. There is so much to creating a website on Weebly, and this tutorial is extremely helpful in organizing information when learning how to use the tool. This video, as well as this slide show allows you to see the process and final product, and it makes me excited to create my own website!


I enjoyed this site as it gave ideas in education on using Google apps. It is important to integrate this into my classroom when I become a teacher in order to keep students engaged while keeping my classroom costs low, as Google apps are FREE! They are easy to use, but these sites give teachers more direction as to how to use them in the best way for their classroom.

I liked this slide show because it went along with my other class, Instructional Technology for the K-12 Teacher, really well. We learned how to use Google sites in education in that classroom, and this gave me more insight to the subject. I can use Google sites to allow my students to express themselves through words and pictures in an organized way. For the younger students, it is a great way to organize blogs, and for the older students to make a portfolio.



Wix seems like an easier tool to use for younger students, which are the ones I want to work with. I think that it would be easier to use with my class and that they would have more fun with it. Sometimes it is hard to get kids involved in something new in technology because it is something they have never tried before. With employment options moving more and more to technology-based job availability, it is important to educate our students at a young age as to the importance of technology use.

It is easy to get a website started, but many people have a hard time maintaining it (this goes for my professional Twitter usage--Sorry to all my followers!!!). I think that this list gives people who are new to technology a real chance to make their educational page thrive! The article would be useful for anyone, as it gives tips such as to plan ahead and how to stay organized.

In The Connected Educator (2012), Nussbaum-Beach and Hall made a great point that teachers are not effective unless making a neural schematic connection in the lives of their students. This includes integrating new information into prior knowledge to develop a connection within the brain. Without this, learning does not occur (pg. 140-1). As teachers, we must take the time to learn new things in order to truly educate our students. Anybody can stand in front of a classroom reciting notes and writing information on the blackboard. It takes an effective teacher, a connected educator, to get through to students and teach them new things. If you want to become a teacher for the right reasons, you want to help students reach their full potential. You want to push students to their educational limits and to show them that hard work pays off. You cannot get this through traditional ways of educating. Being a connected educator means communication between you and your personal learning network, taking time to learn new things in your spare time, and sharing your new information with your students in order to enrich their lives.

After taking this course, I have a whole new perspective on education, and becoming a "connected educator" is a new goal of mine. Not only do I want to stand out in the crowd in my career, but I want to help my students reach their full potential and learn new things both in- and outside the classroom. I want to show them how to explore the world in a safe way, and how to handle all of the technology that is being thrown at them. I want to touch the lives of my students and have them graduate from my class as a better learner.