Blog about a teacher blog

Blog I am blogging about:  http://budtheteacher.com/blog/

Current Banner of the Blog

(Blog Post Header I am blogging about.)

The author of the blog I read wrote about post centered around textbook publishers that are creating interactive textbooks for handheld devices such as iPads.  This post is especially relevant to me because all my students access their textbooks through a Pearson eText for schools app.  That said, one of my complaints about this "technology" is that it is basically an e-reader.  The author of this blog discusses how various vendors are working to produce products that are interactive.    He mentions that while the graphics and overall presentation of the material is nice - there is a HUGE problem in the management of the data that students will input - as in as the blogger writes "No way to actively manage and/or sync data from our databases to theirs.  Duplicate accounts.  Terrible data management.  Shockingly disappointing attention to issues of privacy or student ownership of the work they do."  In other words, while the product may be nice looking, it is perhaps just another impractical tool that is technologically behind in its capability because the producers have ignored such vital details.

On the one hand I am glad that such products are being engineered due to the fact that an interactive textbook resource could take my classes to the next level.  However, if data management is so poor that it compromises student identity as well as it forces me to hand enter all 160 students into things like quizzes, classwork assignments, etc., and then enter student grades individually into an online gradebook separate from that eText then I do not see this as a tool, but rather "good idea" created by people who never set foot in the classroom, and do not see how their product is 100% impractical.

Website Evaluation

While I believe I am overall proficient at evaluating a website for quality, and usefulness, this activity was helpful in that it reminded me of formal ways to evaluate websites.  For example, I had not thought of arriving at a dead link ("404") message as a problem with the website and/or an indicator that the site itself was not well maintained.  I come across such messages often, so it is helpful to know this is something to consider.

As far as the learning objective related to this activity which is stated as "the ability to evaluate websites for use in your future classroom", this activity was relevant.  In addition to considering if a site and the information shared through it is well maintained, this activity brought my attention to the idea of whether or not the content is accessible for all my students, including those that may need screen readers and/or those who do not have high speed internet outside of our school.  Additionally, this exercise is one which will help me better guide students on how to identify websites that are useful versus those that are not for their own academic pursuits.