Blog #8

The website I decided to visit this time was http://www.usdla.org/ this website is a government organization that helps people keep up with the latest technology and trends in distance learning.  It allows people to join forums, webinars, trainings, live chats, etc... in order to enhance and stay connected with the advances that promote distance learning.  There is so much information that is offered to help people with distance learning.  There is a annual fee to become and remain a member.   Thier mission is to serve the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity. Some opportunities consist of becoming a board member or sponser.  The purpose of this organization is to allow anyone at any time and at any place the opportunity to recieve an education.  On the home page there was a vast amount of newsletters and links to review and research the growing technology that enahnces distance learning and there was also many articles that contained imformation over the benefits of using distance education.  This oragnizational website was really intertesting and insightful of just how important distance eduaction is.  This government website allowed me to realize that with the large and expanding amount of information and technology there is never an excuse not to receive an education!

Blog Posting #7

The website i chose to review this week was http://www.ala.org/.  Much to my surprise this website offered a vast amount of information and resources for both educators, librarians and students, and even for people that want credible inforamtion and hot topics in books and articles.  The websites states that their goal is....." to promote library service and librarianship.” And to.....To provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.”  They use well known celebrities to help them promote reading and literacy.  They provide tutorials and webinars to instruct and inform on topics to promote literacy and interest in reading.  They even provide online courses to instruct and create opportunities for children and learning.  There is a slide on the fron page that displays alot of useful and interesting imformation that had me surfing this website for almost an hour!!

Blog # 6

The website I have chosen to visit and review is the http://edtechisland.wetpaint.com/. This website much to my surprise, was an informational site about a virtual island located on the second life.  This virtual island is a resource for teachers.  It offers a variety of education resource, information and events.  The resources found provide teaching ideas and lessons to use in the classroom.  I have used second life before and I found it truly unbelievable.  The manner in which this vast amount of information and technology is used in this virtual world greatly enhances the resources and education of students and teachers.  What I would like to learn more is about enrollment in this type of course.  The courses are offered thorugh this virtual world and there is a small fee.  But I would like to actually see how the classses are run.  If they are anything similar to the class I took in the summer with Second life,  I believe, then, this is a great educational resource to use and join.

Blog Posting #5

The publication I chose to review this week was the online journal www/techlearning.com.  This journal was super full of interesting facts, information and links abouttechnolgy. The journal also contained helpful tips on various topics from how to maintain your computers speed to how to use interactive websites in your classroom.  The different links and topics are extremely helpful and uselful ways to help an educator make using technology easier in and even out of the classroom.  I will definitely use this website again and even bookmark it for future reference!

Blog Posting #4

This journals websites was full of articles and archives with inforamation that pertained to education.  It was orgasnized into two types of articles: research articles and professional development articles.  All of the professional articles were technology based and connected with education in some way.  The monthly research article posted was specifically about financing and funding for education technology.  This article was very serious and not too inviting.  The reason I chose to review this article is because it sounded like my name!!

Blog Posting #3

The website I chose to review this week was salt.org.  The only reason I chose to review this website was because the name caught my attention.  I wondered why a website would be called SALT and it actually stands for Society for Apllied Learning Technology.  This organiztion enables one to achieve knowledge for work in the field of applied learning technology by association with other professionals in conferences sponsored by the Society.  it's website provides members with the opportunity to post any comments, questions, news, conferences etc.  There is an annual membership fee to be part of this organization and many opportunities to go to conferences and publications.  After reviewing this website I found alot going on with this organiztion and it was very interesting to see the postings and agendas for this organization. 

Second Blog Posting

The website I chose to review this time was pbs.org.  I chose this website because it was full of so much useful and interesting information.  I was surprised to see and read all the inforamtion they had over what congressional leaders have in the topic over education and our children.  Many of the sitiuations going on in our nation today greatly affect the educational system and the future of our children.  This website not only provided topics over education, but topics over the environment, politics, science and even entertainment!  It was filled of lots of information and actually think I will keep it as one of my homepages!