teaching the human body systems....

After waiting for a week, not a single response was offered to the question that Justin and I posed regarding an interactive website to assist in the teaching of human body systems. I am unsure as to whether our question was too vague, too specific, uninteresting, or what not. So.... We offer our own response. If you have any interest in a cool interactive website to illustrate the various human body systems, see www.innerbody.com. It was a great find.

an instructional software website....

I recently examined the instructional software website of www.riverdeep.com, the website famous for the 'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" game that I remember as so interesting when I was a young adolescent. In addition to the afore-mentioned game located under the website's Social Studies heading, instructional software is available for math, reading, science, and various other subjects. As a future English educator, I perused the reading offerings and found the 'Edmark Functional Word Series' that is designed for K-12 students. This product is designed to "teach the functional vocabulary necessary for independent community living" and features specific modules covering the following applicable areas: signs around you; fast food/restaurant words; grocery words; and job/work words. The product comes with over 1200 worksheets to teach and reinforce the various vocabulary words from the lessons. In my opinion, this is certainly a tool that could be utilized in a secondary classroom if a teacher is dealing with ESL students or students that are struggling with vocabulary. As drill-and-practice instructional software, it will provide immediate feedback to students and motivate students to practice through a variety of exercises.

educational technology associations....

In perusing a number of websites for educational technology associations or organizations, I found that each site generally contains a mission statement, conferences sponsored by the association or organization, a library of related publications and journals, and a career center. Though the four associations and organizations that I looked into were all similar, they were slightly different, as exemplified by their respective mission statements: AACE - Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education...the association is an international, educational and professional not-for profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge, theory, and quality of learning and teaching at all levels with information technology; AECT - Association for Education Communications and Technology...the mission of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology is to promote the effective design and use of technologies in the teaching/learning process, worldwide; ISTE - International Society for Technology in Education...a nonprofit membership organization, ISTE provides leadership and service to improve teaching, learning, and school leadership by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education; ITEA - International Test and Evaluation Association...a professional association, chartered in Washington, D.C. as an educationally oriented, not-for-profit, technical society; that is, the organization is a collection of individuals who have a common interest in the discipline of test and evaluation and who wish to foster, preserve, and advance the art and science of test and evaluation. For more information on any of these societies, see their respective websites....

a great website....

My education technology just alerted me as to this website's existence. It's definitely worth a look if you are an english teacher or merely a recreational reader: www.librarything.com James Folkestad gets credit for this one....

copyright in the classroom....

After having read through a number of websites regarding copyright, I have the following observations: first, I was entirely unaware that my creations were copyrighted; second, I now understand why my professors are so restricted in the length of photocopied sections from texts or even sections of texts that are available to students electronically (e-reserve); and finally I am thankful for these resources regarding copyright rights so that I can avoid getting ensnared in unintentionally violating copyright laws when I am in my own classroom. Good stuff....