Favorite Technology Tool

My favorite tool that I have used in my EDU 244 class was Edmodo. www.edmodo.com This site allows teachers to add assignments, quizzes, and polls online. This can be used for students who are going to be missing a lot of school or for students who are taking classes online. This is a great way to keep students up on their work and give them feedback on their work. The students are able to receive badges that give feedback as to how they are doing. I liked how these tools were easy to use and how simple it was to grade assignments, create quizzes, and keep track of grades for each student. I would use this tool every now and then to keep students engaged in their learning and make them feel like they are more in control of what they are learning. I would set aside a few days for them to complete the assignments that I assign on Edmodo and give them a chance to have that online learning in their education. I think that it is good to have a fair balance between technology and "old" learning (taking notes and somewhat lecturing). By just doing projects or taking notes, students will get bored with class and decide not to pay attention in class. I would also use this site if I have students who will be away for a long period of time or who may be in the hospital. This is a great way to make sure they do not fall far behind and stay up to date even when they are not physically present.

The social networking site that I studied was Pinterest.
https://www.pinterest.com/

The purpose of Pinterest is to share your creative ideas via photos as well as look at other peoples creative ideas that they posted. If there is a specific category you want to look for, you can find it on the side bar or type it in in the search bar. Once you have found a picture you like, you can either re-pin it so that the people who follow you can see it, you can like it (which is the heart button), or you can send it to people through Pinterest. Another option is to send it via email to people so that they can see what you post or what you found even if they don't have an account through Pinterest.

One thing that I like about this site is that it is a great way to share decorating ideas especially for a classroom. There are other teachers who post great educational craft ideas as well which makes it easy to try and incorporate new things into your classroom.

A negative thing about Pinterest is that you can only pin things that you have found on the internet, so in order to get one of your original pictures on Pinterest you have to add it either on Facebook or have it appear on Google so that you can pin it to your account. This can often be difficult because some people don't always have the time to do go through this process, and it is easier to just google something rather than go through Pinterest.

I would use this site all the time to give me some new and engaging educational ideas for my students to try. Whether it be from science experiments to arts and crafts, it will give them more of a diversity throughout the classroom.

A possible hazard could be that inappropriate things may be pinned but it is a very rare situation. You can follow the people you want to and if this is used with students in a classroom it will only ever have educational purposes that pop up. It is hard to always monitor social networking, but in a classroom that is the teachers job and responsibility when using these materials.

I will continue to use Pinterest to give me more educational ideas that I can use throughout my classroom.

The tool that I found that would be useful to improve students writing is Quizlet http://quizlet.com/ .


The function of this tool is to allow students to be able to go through content material and be able to understand it and learn it in all different ways. There are flashcards that can be used which have the definition on one side of the card and the answer on the back. This helps students understand the most important concepts in the current content material. There is a learn option too. This option gives you the words that are within the definition and you have to remember, and correctly spell the word, that fits. Speller is almost the same thing as the learning tool, but it focuses much more on the spelling of the word rather than just getting it correct. The word is read aloud to the student and they need to be able to spell it correctly. There is a test option as well that allows students to go over all of the material that they have learned and see how well they are understanding the material. The test will give them a % of the questions that they got right and tell them the ones they got incorrect. The scatter option scatters the different definitions and answers, and the student must match them up. They are being timed on how fast they do it. It can be helpful in pushing them to do better with their times and improving on their results. The last option that is available is the race option. This one has the definitions and words cross the screen and you have to type in the right word that describes it before the description crosses the screen. If it reaches the other screen, it will stop the rest from coming and hep you just focus on that word.
 These functions are used to not only help students understand what they are learning, but to also give them some extra practice on their writing and spelling skills.


If I was to teach an elementary writing class, or language arts, I would give them definitions that relate to grammar and pronoun use. This would help them not only understand the material but it would also help them with how they write. I would give the students the study guide with all the different rules and it would be their job to create their own Quizlet and put it all online so that they not only study with the different tools, but when they put the information into Quizlet it can help them remember some things as well.

My Ed. Tech Introduction

This is a blog for my educational technology class. My name is Gina Kowalchuk and I am an Elementary Education major. I am from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada and have grown up there my whole life. I am a student at the University of Great Falls and am in my freshman year. I am on the golf team at the University of Great Falls and have done well in my previous season. The purpose of this blog is to give educational insight into the different technologies that can be used throughout the classroom.