Special Assignment #2

Part I


Khan Academy
  
The Khan Academy is a free website.  Just by gazing at the homepage you seem to be able to find a video in everything that almost any student can use plus other information such as banking and credit information.  They have videos about investing and venture capital.  These videos go into detail about the subject.  It is almost like a one on one session with the teacher.  They are a non-profit organization whose goal is to provide a "free world-class education to anyone anywhere."  Anyone is allowed to use the site.  They also have exercises that can be worked that can be broken down step by step.

iTunesU
iTuneU is part of iTunes.  So you have to download iTunes to be able to use it.  It contains lectures and other videos that have been done by actual professors.  The videos come from colleges and universities all over the world.  You can choose a college and then sift through what they have posted.  These are free lectures of different classes.

TED
This is a non-profit organization that is devoted to what they call "Ideas worth spreading."  It is a place where knowledge is free and covers many different areas.  Some of the areas covered in this site are technology, entertainment, design, business, science and globel issues.  The videos can be short or long.  They seem to have quite a bit of information but seems to be a little harder to navigate than the other two.

Part II


Khan Academy
They have video teaching lessons in just about anything that you need to learn in school or college.  They also have practice exercises in some subjects such as math.  They are continually growing and adding more videos to the ones they already have.  Mostly this side is dedicated to education.  I think that this site would be fantastic for teachers to use with students who are having problems with understanding a concept.  They can spend extra time on a topic by getting extra instruction with out the class teacher having to do it.  They can also work the lessons that the site has to help them with the concepts.


iTunesU
This site isn't just lessons.  It covers things that have been posted for K-12 but these are not just lesson geared toward the student.  There are sections that are resources for teachers.  There are also the sections that is for colleges level information..  You can choose a college then the category that you are interesting in.  This site could be helpful to a teacher who is looking for more information than the regular textbooks offers.  Some of the videos could be shown to the class to go in hand with whatever lesson you are teaching.

TED
This site does not seem to be as in depth enough for the topics I would need.  As a teacher I will need history and social science type of videos and there just isn't that much to choose from and only a couple of the videos would be any help in the classroom to me and I am not sure how they could help other teachers.

Part III


TED
Aaron Huey: America's Native prisoners of war
Mr. Huey gave a very impassioned presentation on the injustice of the treatment of the Lakota.  He made his point very clear as to the fact that the reservations were prisoner of war camps and the Indians themselves prisoners.  I feel it was in depth with out being boring.  All of the matters discussed were accurate.  I feel it was a well done presentation that got to the point with out any unnecessary fluff.

iTunesU
Unfortunately I was not able to figure out how to put a link for this video.  I watched the Temple of
Diana/Anatomical Votive.  This video lends itself very well to education.  It was short and to the point which is what I like.  It discussed the Temple of Diana and votives that the people would leave as gifts.  It showed samples of the votive that they were talking about.  It gave good information about the topic and was extremely informative.

Khan Academy
Appomattox Courthouse and Lincoln's Assassination
This video is basically a learning tool.  I think it is fantastic.  It is very informative.  If gives the basic information that is needed for students for understanding the things that took place at Appomatiox. It also discussed the issues that led up to Lincoln's assassination.  Very informative and easy to follow and understand.

Part IV
When it comes to how I can use each of these sites a s a teacher, I can honestly say that I do not think that I will be using TED.  I thought that this site was hard to navigate.  If did not contain the type of information that I feel that I will need teaching history.  I am sure it may be of some use to others but it doesn't fit me.
     iTunes could be a good supplemental source of information that I can present to my class.  Also it can be used as a research  for student who are working on projects.  The Khan Academy is my favorite of the three sites.  It is made for education.  The information is very informative.  if has great depth into the subjects that it covers.  The lessons would be good to use as a teacher.  If a student misses a class they can get the information that they missed from this website.  It can also be used by the students to find more information than can be gone over in the classroom.  Of the three this is the one that I like the most and will plan to use in my class.

Part V
This assignment has shown me that there are many assets in the cloud that can be used by students and teachers.  It has really opened my eyes to the fantastic tool that the internet can be for schools.  I can hear all of the "old school" believers say that the internet is just to dangerous for children to be using.  I understand that it is dangerous but so is a school bus.  As adult we have to use common sense to protect the children while giving them as many advantages as possible.  I am very glad that I have been introduced to this information.  I feel that it will come in very handy in my future as a teacher.