Journal 7

Focus Question 1

What are intelligent tutoring systems and how can students and teachers use them successfully?

Intelligent tutoring systems are software programs that fundamentally provide a computerized interpretation of a student’s level of learning. Teachers can best benefit from these programs to determine the area of focus for students by getting another evaluation of a student’s progress other than their own, while students use these programs as a source to reinforce material for skills that are not yet mastered.    

Tech Tool 7.1

Scratch is a site where the imagination and creativity of younger students run wild as they create their very own virtual learning game. The student creators also provide a brief description of their project to give their audience an idea of what the game is about. This approach is different from the traditional methods where the teachers search already generated materials to develop students learning. Instead, this promotes the students to produce a game made the way they will learn whatever it is to be learned.

Summary

This chapter reveals the power of software programs which are one major aspect of technology. There are several different forms of software programs such as web-processing software, communication software and antivirus software, to name a few. Different software programs known as application software serve different purpose/s. Teachers have noticed their multifaceted capabilities and have incorporated them into their curriculum to simply find riveting methods to enhance inquiry base learning and problem solving skills. Web based software programs can be easily accessible through open source alternatives or simply a commercial product; however, in terms of security, the commercial product offers more protection in comparison to the open source. Though the idea of using software programs for learning may seem ideal for many reasons, cautionary is still given to teachers who do not thoroughly evaluate the way in which they will be utilized, for most software programs may take away from the overall goal of a lesson.  

Journal 6

Focus Question
1.      What is information management and digital content?

Information management is simple organizing and managing any information obtained for any purpose.  In conjunction with the information management, the digital content, which is information found on the web, makes it much easier to gather an unlimited amount of reliable information that could be later used for enriching or enhancement.

Tech Tool 6.2

Goodreads.com

Goodreads is a neat source where people can find ratings on any type of book and to decide which book/s would be a perfect fit for whatever reason they decide to read for. It offers people who decide to join the benefit of rating the books they have read, and based on the ratings given to a particular book or books, it is made published for others to view. Also, the site provides a convenient approach (recommendation) that enables its audience when deciding to read a new book, by suggesting other books based on what they have read previously. There are games and a trivia posted on the home page on specific books and also famous quotes.

Credit to Brody on Flickr.com

Summary

Technology has made things much more convenient for teachers as well as students by providing all sorts of web resources that which will facilitate them through their search for not only obtaining relevant information but also managing them and using them. Although the web contains vast amount of information which one can easily get caught up in and lose their focus, bookmarking tools make it a lot easier to implement such task as teaching a curriculum or researching a particular topic.