EduTopia

Edutopia is a website dedicated to spreading the word about ideal, interactive learning environments. The website contains some of the best practices that include classroom tips and recommendations for change. Edutopia is dedicated to connect and inspire change in the education system. It provides real world examples and advice for students and teachers. You can browse the website by grade levels or you can one of it many core strategies. The site includes blogs and videos as well as online self quizzes. You can find out what kind of learner you are or you can find out your emotional intelligence. Overall, this seems like a very useful website for educators as well as parents.

http://www.edutopia.org/

EduHound

The website EduHound is a great resource for teachers. It provides a collection of education resources by topic that teachers can access. It provides different lessons that are available to the teachers as well as links to other websites that can be useful to the educators in developing their own lessons. The website can either be navigated by specific topics or it can be searched by broader categories. It seems like a good websites that teachers can use to get different ideas on how to approach topics with their students. It would be good to see how on topic and current these lessons are and how they can be applied to different grade levels.

http://www.eduhound.com/

Virtual Museum

This virtual museum's goal is to bring out the history of San Francisco into the light. The website uses text, graphics, and sounds to provide visitors with a fun and interesting experience. There are several ways to navigate through the site. You can choose from a major online exhibit, browse by subject, year, or biographies. There are a multitude of links that will lead anywhere from an old newspaper clipping to other websites. There is also a shop museum in case visitors would like to make a purchase. It's a great way for people to go to the museum from the comfort of their own home. They can learn all about San Francisco at their own pace. It seems like a very good website for students to use and to learn the meaning of primary and secondary sources. They can explore a topic and learn from first account statements what happened.

http://www.sfmuseum.org/

National Council for the Social Studies: NCSS

The National Council for the Social Studies provides "leadership, service, and support for all social studies educators." This organization was founded in 1921 and has members in all of the states along with 69 foreign countries. The NCSS represents all the school grades as well as college and university faculty. The website provides teachers with resources that can be used in the schools. There is a teachers library that contains a collection of classroom activities, teaching ideas, and articles on U.S. History. It also provides a resourse for women's history month along with Election Resources. Overall this seems like a valuable organization that can be very beneficial to social studies teachers. They have good resources that many teachers can take advantage of. I wasn't aware that there were organizations designed to help and promote specific school subjects. I would like to find more organizations that can be of use to me when I start teaching myself.

http://www.socialstudies.org/

SALT

SALT or the Society for Applied Learning Technology is an organization that allows individuals who work in the field of applies leaning technology to have access to information and support from other professionals in the same field of experience. The organization was founded in 1972 and is a professional society where members participate in society sponsored meetings. The society holds conferences that cover technology applications such as elearning, web-based training, instructional systems design and a varitey of other applications. Those who attend these conferences are given the opportunity to learn and become familiar with the latest technical information available. This Society sounds like a very good organizations for the teachers who use a lot of technologies in their classrooms or that are computer teachers. It seems like a great way to become familiar with the new technology and it appears to offer great support from people who share the same interests. I would like to know what kind of publications they have, and if the conferences are opened to people who are not members of the Society. I would also like to see if there are other organizations out there who offer the same type of support and encouragement.

http://www.salt.org/salt.asp?ss=l&pn=aboutsalt

"e" or "M" learning

On the website "EDTech Opportunity Realized" there was one link that led me to M-learning, or "mobile learning". I learned that although different people may have a different meaning for it, mobile learning is "learning across locations, or taking advantage of learning opportunities offered by portable technologies." This has decreased the limitations of learning that being in a fixed location may cause. By using handheld computers and pocket PC's or even cell phones, students can promote group collaborations. This provides even better support for the audiovisual learner. The content is adaptable to meet each students individual needs, and it is easily accesible. Not to mention that it allows the students to act independently and without time constraints. I know that we use computers in our classrooms, but after reading this, I think it would be beneficial for the students to have some sort of portable technology that they could have access to whenever they needed it. I would like to find more information on what other types of portable technologies are available for students and how they can be readily available to them.

http://edtechisland.wetpaint.com/page/%22e%22+or+%22M%22+learning

The Journal of Educators Online

The Journal of Educator Online is used to share scholarly journals in the area of Computer Mediated Learning. This is a journal for educators, policy-makers, and students who are interested in the future of computer mediated learning in many different fields of study including: Arts, Businees, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Sciences and Social Sciences. It provides several articles that allow the readers to take advantage of the avilable technologies to them. One of the articles that drew my attention was the "Faculty Perceptions of Technology Distance Education Transactions: Qualitive Outcomes to Inform Teaching Practices" The author of this article observed and gathered information from educators who used distance learning programs in their classrooms. With this data, recommendations for informing administrators and educators in a better way were given. I would like to learn more of the different ways in which transitioning older educators who are not as familiar with technology would work, and if it would be as easy to do as it is with younger educators.

http://www.thejeo.com/