Participate 2.1.1 Collecting Reputable Digital Resources

As an educator it is very important that we keep up with the latest trends in technology and help our students learn to use and take advantage of these tools.  But there are so many resources that are out there, it can be hard to know what is best and what can be trusted.  In reading and working on my web walkabout, I found that sites with suffixes such as .gov, .org, and .edu would be the most likely to be trustworthy and helpful.

The first site that I found to be useful is Symbaloo.  This is a bookmarking site that allows you to bookmark anything from educational resources to social media to news websites.  It is visually appealing and is organized very nicely.  As a teacher, I have so many different sites that I need to have quick access to that I feel like this would be a great way to organize all of them.

The second site that I found to be very useful is Illuminations.  As a math teacher, I find that I have students and parents that are always wanting to know of places where they can find additional help.  This site is very well-organized and topics can easily be searched to find what you are looking for.  It has a lot of lessons and nice interactive tools.  I have actually used this site in my classroom to show how to make constructions using a compass.  It gives my students a great picture of how a compass should be used and even lists the steps for making the constructions!

The third site that I found is Braingenie.  I have never had any experience with Braingenie but from what i found on the site it seems to be very helpful in the areas of math and science.  This site has the math content organized very nicely.  It allows you to quiz yourself on almost any math topic.  These types of sites are great when it comes to studying and preparing for standardized tests and even the SAT or ACT.  I plan on linking this site to my website that is open to my students.

It is important that as we are using these resources and many others, and encouraging out students to do so, that we also teach them how to be aware of harmful sites and non-trustworthy sites.  Using the site Stop Badware is a great place to go and check sites to make sure they are safe.  I had never heard of this site either, but after learning about it and reading through it I found it to be very helpful!  Also, most education websites allow free membership, whereas sites that could be harmful want to try and charge money and fool you into giving out personal information.  These are a couple of things to be on the lookout for when searching for good, trustworthy education sites.