Day 2

Class went well today. We discussed blogs (what they are, purpose/function, how to use them). We had a short show & tell about different types of technology and we also had some time to work on our virtual tours. I had a chance to compare my groups virtual tour of the UMD library to other tours located on the web. For instance, I took a tour of some of the interesting tourist attractions in China. I visited the Yellow Mountains and took a virtual trip to the beautiful hot springs located around the area. I also strolled around Beijing experiencing some of the culture, virtually ofcourse. After a rewarding trip to China I decided to visit the Pentagon in Washington D.C. After the virtual tour guide pretended to show me exactly what goes on in the Pentagon I decided to take a quick trip to the ocean. Belize sounded good so I hit up Central America for a quick virtual sun tan.

Obviously the virtual tours I took could never compare to the real thing, however they do have a function. It's a great way to gather information about planning a trip or to teach students about certain areas or things. It's cool how students can research places around the world without leaving the classroom.

This is one aspect of technology that I'm interested in and will definitely have my students take advantage of. I'm also interested in the interactive technology teachers use now days. The teacher will have questions and all the students in the classroom will have remote controls to answer the questions posted in front of the class. I have some experience in this and I was not really impressed, but I have a feeling newer and better devices similar to this method will be appearing in the market. As a biology teacher I will be very interested in using high quality pictures in power point lectures. I also think it would be really cool to introduce students to web cameras, this would enable them to talk face to face with other students around the world. Sharing views about science and biology with students from other cultures would be a great educational tool.