The amount of sites that we have discussed/visited/looked at/played around with is truly staggering. To be honest, I had never even heard of some of these sites or seen them used in action. As a result, I was pretty overwhelmed when I first heard how much we would be doing. However, there are a few sites that I have to say that I am excited to use in the future.
The first website that I decided was one of the most important resources is EduKan. This is one of the coolest sites because it is like a gigantic briefcase of teacher essentials. My favorite thing is that it can be used as a student resource center. Teachers can post announcements, homework, tests, photographs, pretty much anything and the students can go on and access it all right in that area. This would definitely cut down on the amount of lost papers. I think that this tool is also smart for the students because, let's be honest, they grew up in a time when they were constantly surrounded by computers and they are probably more familiar with them than many teachers and may feel comfortable doing more stuff like tests and work online. Along with the student center, I also loved ThinkFinity. At this website, I found the alignment search tool most useful because it is hard to create lesson plans that align with the standards, but this site gives you tools to do it. I will definitely use this in my future teaching.
The other website that I found really cool was Prezi. We all grew up when PowerPoints were the best way to present anything; science reports, history or even literature reviews. Well I will definitely use Prezi for a few reasons. First, it allows much more movement to allow students to remain engaged. Second, you can actually have videos in your presentation rather than simply providing a link to a video. Third, it allows for a lot more customization so students can feel like they have more buy in and ownership. Finally, students can group the information into segments that simple slide shows cannot. This is my example of a Prezi!
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