Post 2 Chapter 2 topics: internet services, assistive technologies, guide to WWW sites. search techniqies, search tools

The World Wide Web (WWW) is a service available on the internet is a collection of links that make it easy to connect to web pages. A web page is synonomous with an electronic document. a web site is a collection of related web pages. They have a starting page, a home page, and then has links to other web pages that are related and provide extra information. The unique address to get to each web page called a uniform resource locator (URL). In general URL's begin with http:// which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. You view web pages through a Web browser which is a software program. A web server provides the requested web pages when you type them in the address bar.

This section is fairly applicable to the educational career. It is very useful to know how websites and webpages operate. Now I should be able to create a class website and be able to help students in a more efficient manner outside of class. I thought that all of this information is very interesting as I was not aware of most of it before. It's good to know all this for general life too. Since technology is becoming more prevalent in our society.

The first major aspect of chapter one is the ARCS model created by John M Keller in 1983. Keller atrributes the differences in student learning to the amount of effort, or the motivation of the students to learn. He asserts that good teachers should be able to create a level of motivation that isnt superficial but goes deeper so that the student will be able to retain the information rather than forget it after the test.

The four aspects of the ARCS model are Attention, Relevance, Challenge (confidence), Satisfaction (success). The attention area states that digital technology has the potential to be used as a way to address all learning types in new and novel ways that will eliminate boredom. Keller proposes that since digital technology is integral in the lives of students it should be used in the classroom as a way to increase focus and curiousity by presenting lessons in innovative ways. Relevance addresses the need for the lessons to be relative to the audience or class. By utilizing technology that students are familiar with, teachers can present ideas in a way that is valuable to students. The "c" represents challenge. Digital technology, Keller argues, can be used to create lessons of different levels of difficulty...then students can acheive and gain confidence in their work. By creating several levels students can work at their own pace and gain confidence in learning. The last section, satisfaction, states that by allowing students to showcase their work and receive feedback using newly acquired skills applied in a new setting, teachers can create an environment of feedback and reinforcement among students and between student and teacher. All of these aspects are going to be important in my classroom. The environment in the classroom should always encourage students to learn and keep increasing in their desire to learn.

Recently teaching has come to include teaching students how to deal with technology and use it in a productive manner. As a result of all the technological advances that have and are occuring, teachers must include modern technology in order for students to gain skills they need in a "technology-rich society" (pg21). Technology opens up the door for students and teachers to provide unique, and effective presentations that apply to many different people of many different skill levels.

Since my last post I have learned how to make a section of a Word document have columns and not other parts of it..I have always wondered how to do that and I finally figured it out! I have also learned of the importance of using technology in the classroom and the ways that it can provide interesting means of presenting information. I had never really thought of technology as THAT important in the classroom, but I am beginning to see how it can provide options for a teacher. So I am excited to keep learning more skills that I can apply in the classroom.