You might be asking yourself why do I have two tools listed. The reason why I have two listed is because I fell in love with both tools, but one of them I could not use fully. My main goal for this assignment was to find tools that I really would be able to utilize in my classroom setting currently. I am not in a teaching position yet, but I am in the classroom. My dream would be to teach the Fourth Grade, however since I am in a K - 1 setting, I took my expectations down a notch.
Kidthing was the first tool that I happened upon. It is an interactive educational site that children can go on to read books, connect with friends, and be creative. Unfortunately, I could not interact with this site fully because it is only currently for PC computers, not Macs. That is ok thought, because I am on the list to be contacted when it is available! The adorable creatures from this website really drew me in. The fact that there are no ads for the children to be distracted by was a big seller for me. To this day I cannot show a video on YouTube in the classroom because you do not know what inappropriate things might pop up, and you cannot risk the chance of that happening!
Information retrieved from: http://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=Kidthing
Since I could not fully interact with the site, I decided to check out another one. And boy am I glad that I did!! I happened upon Zoodles, which is a children’s web browser. What is great about it is that there are so many interactive activities for the parents and the children. Everything that the child/student does is recorded on the parent’s own personal website. The parents can see what games or activities the child did and it even keeps track of which subjects were reviewed. This information is so great for parents today to interact with their children. It is also great information for teachers as well. What I really liked again about this web browser was that the adult could monitor specific settings. There are settings to eliminate violence, set time limits, etc. The parents have complete control over what the child can have access to.
Information retrieved from: http://www.zoodles.com
Overall, I was impressed with the two tools that I came across. I will definitely be utilizing them in the current classroom that I am in.
Elizabeth Zoodle sound like an application I would love as a parent and a teacher. I teach High School students but a constant issue teachers face is parent involvement. I think it is great to have parents involved and collaborating with their children's work. As a mother I will definitely be committed and involved in Siomara's education. This sounds like a great tool to help her become familiar with the internet and provide me with comfort that it is safe. Nice application!
ReplyDelete