Sunday, December 13, 2009

Google

I found Google to be quite useful in the classroom. With Google search I as a teacher would be able to search for out of date or out of copyright books and even read them in full text on line. This would be a great tool for the students when they need to research a topic. Brent Jones a chemistry teacher from Illinios spoke on how he liked the GoogleBook Search because it is so hard sometimes to access research books at schools. Schools have had to cut the cost of research books in their librarys due to the economy. With the use of the computer students can do their research without having to take a book off the shelf; and have access to the books that are no longer in thier library. I found it very interesting with GoogleEarth , Maps, Sky & Sketchup that I could create interesting activities to keep my students engaged in perhaps a boring topic. I could create quizzes, watch astronomical events through a telescope. I could even take my class on a trip in literature class to bring the novel to life. Math and science could be easily combined while learning about tsunamis. We as a class could design a map of a future field trip so we would know our exact location and what we wished to see. Sketchup would be a great tool for math students. They would be able to have hands on learning in concepts like geometry, learning area or volume. Overall I think that this site would be very fundamental for students and I think that it could be used for all grades.