The use of igoogle

The technology I choose to study this week is igoogle. I wanted to study this piece because I have heard of people using it to set up their classrooms with their students and to be honest I was very curious. After playing around with igoogle.com in class I think by the use of this technology in the classroom could be endless possibilities. But first, I have come to conclusion that there are pros and cons to this technology. A pro about this piece is that this website is what you as a teacher chooses to make it. This website could be an agenda for students to use as a resource in class or as a resource to provide for the students to use as home, as the book calls it, an outer space. The book defines this as including contents and tools the user finds interesting or useful on a more general basis or for infrequent use. I also think a pro of this technology is something the book points out which they consider personal space. This includes the use of content and tools that will be personally useful for school or work nearly every day. I find this to be a pro because this would be great if every student could have their own laptop for a school day because you can do some many activities through this website.  I was able to play around with the gadgets on this website and there was a gadget for almost anything you can think of. Which is great variety of teaching in the classroom, there was at least 3 gadgets for every subject taught in the classroom today. But the con I find to this website is the fact that most schools do not have the option to give each student a laptop. I feel like this site would be best utilized this way and unfortunately the school districts do not have this option.

                I think for students to be able to use this website a teacher would have to teach the students a couple of things. The skills that the students would need to be able to be involved in this website are the skills to be able to type, search online, and to be open minded and creative. Learning this website is something I do not foresee students having problems with in today’s society since the internet is such a daily activity any more but if students did struggle, as long as they had a knowledgeable teacher I think everything would go along smoothly. Another thing that the a teacher would have a huge part in with using this website would be that the teacher would have to adapt their teaching style and lesson plans around this lesson if they choose to use it actively. I feel that lesson plans would have to involve around the use of the website as formative assessment. This means that the teacher would really have to pay attention to the class while they are on the computer in order to make sure they are not getting side tracked. I think the best way to make sure that students are on task is for the teacher to be able to block certain websites from them that way they cannot be socializing through facebook as an example. I also believe that students would be best utilizing this website by having them write or reflect on their learning’s instead of having them take a test on the computer through the site. But that is just my style of teaching. But by having the students write out their findings that will creative creativity within the classroom through the use of words and expression. But also teachers could use this website to redo their whole classroom and creative creativity by having the students develop a YouTube video, but it on their igoogle, and then share with the class as a project! Just imagine the possibilities. This website will also allow students to develop computer skills that will help them later in life with their future jobs because if you think about it every job in today’s society involves the computer even fast food.