Week 1--CEDU525--Using the Internet and Web as a Curricular Resource

I enjoyed Week 1 of our new class because it provided many new curriculum resources for my 8th and 9th graders at Falls North. I am making every attempt to integrate technology into all of our Financial Life Skills and Business Venture (intro to bus. course) units. Having the time to check out Thinkfinity in greater depth was most helpful in that I have not used this resource in over a year and was amazed at the many new lessons. Not only did EconEdLink contain many new lesson plans, but other Thinkfinity partners such as ReadWriteThink had lessons and learning tools that I will use. ReadWriteThink has a search engine with limits that include my grade level and economics. In addition, its Cartoon Creator went over exceptionally well with my Financial Life Skills students. Previously, these students wrote a consumer complaint letter in Word. In an effort to provide greater differentiation, I gave my students the choice of creating a verbal complaint scenario in Cartoon Creator or writing the letter. Amazingly, 54 of my 56 students chose the cartoon. My principal, Barb Tays, was observing my lesson that day and she is a strong advocate of providing options to our students. By doing so, we can offer activities that best match our students' various learning styles.

The survey that we did in class made me think to create an exit survey for my FLS students next Friday. That will be our last day in the computer lab for this semester and all of us North FLS teachers value student feedback in order to make the course more engaging. I have used QUIA for quizzes and activities and will use its survey creator for the first time. I am interested to see the survey statistical results in addition to the written comments from my students. QUIA is a subscription site that our district pays for. Students love the activities and have indicated that they prefer on-line quizzes over paper.

Here is the link to the survey:

http://www.quia.com/sv/152434.html

Feel free to try it. I will delete any responses next Friday morning before my students take the survey.

Finally, I enjoyed the Internet Scavenger Hunt. The competitive element appeals to many students and learning through technology is much more engaging than overheads, lectures, etc. I have used scavenger hunts in our FLS banking, credit, insurance, tax, and consumer units. I will be adding them to my BV units. Marketing will be the first one as it lends itself to searches regarding promotions, advertising, slogans, logos, and retailing. 8th and 9th graders love these topics and will become hooked on marketing through Internet searches.