Web+Resources+-+Annotated+Bibliography

TECH/507 Team A's Annotated Bibliography
You can find a variety of resources for student-centered, technology integrated instruction via our Annotated Bibliography.

**Bibliography Reflection**
Our team chose to use Diigo for our collaborative bookmarking tool this week. I was the person to set up the account and add everyone to the group, which I found to be pretty straight forward. I like the fact that this website allows you to make your group private or public, and you can opt to add group members by invitation only. We opted to make our group go public, so that Kelly would be able to access it, as well as others in our class. I can see how the privacy features could make it more appealing for a school setting and student use, as each workgroup could set up their own Diigo group and use emails to invite each other as well as the teacher to view their work. This would keep their work separate from other peer groups in the class, but also from outside users that are not from the class or school. I also like the fact that the website has an app for iPad. Since we have some at our school, this would open up more options for students to work with during class time, if a lab of computers is not available.

I contributed several bookmarks/resources to our group. I contributed Khan Academy, Popplet and XtraMath. All of these resources can be accessed via the web. What I like about each one of them, is that they are really controlled by the user and work well for diverse learning populations. Specifically referencing Khan Academy and XtraMath, students can work at their own pace using multimedia tools to help them better understand the material. Khan Academy specifically references CCSS for lessons and provides a framework for students and teachers to follow that adhere to the standards. XtraMath allows students to practice math facts in an interactive setting and work towards a personal goal that may be different than the person sitting directly beside them. Popplet is a digital tool that creates graphic organizers and can also be used on the iPads (if available) and shared when completed as either a PDF or JPG file. All are self-directed, discovery tools that promote the NETS philosophy of student-centered learning.

I think, as with any new educational tool, resources need to be implemented into lessons on a trial basis and evaluated for their overall contribution to learning. A tool is only valuable if it helps students to achieve learning objectives or provides them a means to getting there. All of these individual tools have strengths and weaknesses, and no one tool can be relied upon to integrate into every lesson. Additionally, they will all require some basic form of instruction before implementation is possible--in other words, students need to know how to use them before they can actually usethem in their projects. A strength for all of the tools is that they are web based, making them easily accessed in the classroom, computer lab, on an iPad or even at home. With the exception of XtraMath, which is geared towards Math only, the other two tools can be used across the curriculum for various subjects, content areas or lesson plans. In addition, all of the resources are hands-on, discovery type tools, where students can explore and create work products based on their discoveries. I would definitely be apt to include at least one, if not all of these tools in my lessons for technology integration. I can definitely see a place for each one in the classroom, and really enjoyed collaborating with other teachers to come up with a really comprehensive list of these and other tools for teachers to use.