Total ACCESS

The ACCESS program is strongly encouraging techonology in the classroom. It "provides high quality courses and teachers via technology." I do think that technology is a very important aspect to be incorporated in classrooms today. It is essential, in our techology consumed world, that children of all ages understand the basic concepts of technology. However, a complete technology based course does take away from the personable communication. It does take away from the everyday interaction with students within a classroom, and therefore taking away valuable social interaction development skills.
This program would be very beneficial for students to take classes that aren't offered at thier school. However, they would have to take personal resposibilty for their work, and without being in an environment where they see their authority on a daily basis, they may not take the work quite so seriously. If the teacher is supervising them at school during a certain time, why can't they just teach it then and there? Why does having it persented online make it more beneficial? As a teacher, it would be very difficult to help the students feel like part of a class. It would be good for individual development and prehaps easier to focus on one student at a time, but it would be very difficult to create a bond between students and teacher and even students with students.
The blending process of mixing more traditional teaching styles with modern technology is a better alternative then having everything completely done online. To watch clips, but then have a teacher facilitate in class discussions. This is a very unique idea and there could be many positive things that come out of this program. However, I believe it is very important for the students to interact with their teachers and for them to be personable. We don't want to just teach them academics or technology, we want to be able to help develop them as well rounded people.

Kazakh Winter

This is a picture taken at a ski resort in Kazakhstan in January of 2006.

Using ALEX in the Classroom

Using ALEX in the classroom would be a very helpful for any teacher from Kindergarten to 12th grade. This is a great tool to be reminded of what concepts need to be taught to students. To go onto this website while planning lesson plans is a great to keep the neccisary concepts at the forefront of the teachers' mind.
I would register to get an account so i could sign into the lesson plans and all other sections of the site to get the most use of the site. It also is a great tool for to give ideas about personal workspace. To change up the style is always good to experiment with different ideas and to see what works best with the children. I will definately want to make use of this tool one I start teaching.

ALEX

ALEX is a great tool for teachers. It is a resource center for teachers to gather more information about certain topics and get ideas from other teachers. The site is divided into different catagories that allow the teachers to gather more informaiton and even lessons plans on certain topics.
The links include web links, courses of study, lesson plans, search, personal workspace, distance learning, and others. To go on to the site and click on a link you can be directed directly to what you need. The search becomes very specific as it asks you to select the grade you are researching for. It lists all the aspects that need to be addressed and taught to the students of that certain grade level in order for them to get the most out of their lessons. It then goes on to give examples of how to apply their suggestions. I am very excited about this site and I think it would be very helpful to anyone in education.

Did You Know?

I really did not know all of those facts about the rapid development of technology. I found the clip very fascinating. Their point was very true that we live in a world where technology is the basis of everyday life. Children do need to be taught how to run all the basics of technology. Not to say children should always be on the computer communicating, there are certain amounts of social skills that are learned from interaction with other humans and through vocal conversation. However, in order to survive in the society today every child must be equipped with the basic knowledge of all aspects of technology.

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