CED0520 Weekly Reflection #1

After completing all of the tasks assigned for 'Week 1' I'm able to take a few minutes to reflect. This past week we looked at Internet Learning Resources; we were to define the term & identify one resource that we currently use. Here was my response to the question, "What does the term Internet Learning Resources mean to you at present?"

The term "Internet Learning Resources" to me is such an open-ended concept. In simple terms I'd say it means anything on the Internet that you can use to learn from. It can include anything from a reference website you use to gather information to an interactive site where web-based simulations take place to Web 2.0 applications to social networking sites. I know it says identify ONE resource that I use but I'm going to list two because they go hand-in-hand for me. I don't know what I'd do without Twitter and my "Personal Learning Network" AND Delicious. I gather so many resources daily from my Twitter connections and then keep them all organized with my Delicious social bookmarking account. These 2 resources have really changed the way I teach and grow as an educator. Just the other day I needed advice about which platform to use for my class (Ning, Edmodo, wiki, etc) and within minutes, I have so many responses from my PLN - amazing!

In addition to looking into Internet Learning Resources, we also were given the task to create an Internet Resource Site Evaluation Form & evaluate 2 sites that we consider to be valuable learning resources. I found Kathy Schrock's Guide For Educators - Critical Evaluation Surveys extremely helpful. On the website there are evaluation surveys broken down by various categories (elementary, middle school, high school, teacher, blogs, etc); here is the website where the eval surveys are located - http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.html. I will certainly use these evaluation surveys in the future!