Educational Websites

I really enjoyed the webpage rubric presentations over the last two sessions in Computers in the Curriculum. There were many great websites that I can't wait to use in my own classroom when I begin teaching. This assignment really opened my eyes to the tremendous amount of quality resources available on the internet. It also showed me that every website needs to be critically evaluated before introducing it in the classroom. Though several websites seemed very appealing at first, as we looked closer and the presenters discussed their content, it became clear that they were not very useful or appropriate after all. It seems that in today's classrooms there is so much to do and so little time to do it in. Teachers really need to make every minute and every experience count. Websites like the ones we saw should not be used in the classroom simply for the sake of utilizing technology instead of traditional methods of teaching. Much like poor parents use television to babysit their children, poor teachers can use the internet to distract and occupy their students. Websites should only be introduced if the learning activities on the website provide an opportunity to reach students in unique and meaningful ways that can not be accomplished otherwise. I think many of the websites discussed through this project do just that, and I thank my classmates for introducing them to me!