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Purpose of the Website: This website is a tutorial created by a librarian at SUNY Albany. The tutorial is an introduction to using the Internet. The readability of the website allows for use by secondary students. The information covers topics such as domain names, programing language, how to search, applications, etc. Make sure you read the "About" section to see what the permissions are for using this website in your classroom. Grade Level: 9-12 Classroom Connection: This website would be great for a library or computer class in high school. Librarians or computer teachers can use this as a reading assignment for students and create an application based activity to go along with it. I am not very comfortable with which kind of activities would be appropriate for a secondary level students since I am an elementary teacher.

Purpose of the Website: The possibilities that Google provides for teachers is endless! There are so many applications that Google creates for classrooms to be used by students and teachers. Some of the programs include: - Google Earth - Doodle 4 Google - Gmail - Google Reader - Google Docs There are also classroom lesson ideas available for teachers on this website. Grade Level: K-12, Professionals Classroom Connection: One example of how Google can be used in the classroom is by using Google Earth. When teaching your students about communities, you can take your class on a virtual field trip of your town. You can pinpoint different community buildings that are important for your community to run and show students where these buildings are. Negatives of this Website: Some of the Google applications do not run correctly in my district. I have had trouble saving virtual field trips that I have made in Google Earth and there have been times when Google Docs have not opened correctly. So this may be a program that you will have to test ahead of time.

Purpose of the Website: This is an enhanced presentation tool that allows the user to create a multimedia, internet-based presentation. The user can also incorporate video, pictures, and narrations in each slide. One of the great things is that users can insert YouTube videos within the presentation. Grade Level: 7-12 Classroom Connection: Students can create a presentation to go along with a research project they are working on, including various multimedia that they found during their research, or that they have created to enhance the presentation. When doing autobiographies with students, this would be a great tool for students to upload family videos from when they were younger. Negatives of this Website: There may be issues with particular videos that are blocked with district filters. I also have trouble with some video applications on my classroom computer at times. This would be an important lesson to show students that they should test their presentations before sharing them.

Farmville is an online virtual farm.

K-6 Farmville is not a traditional classroom activity, but there are characteristics from many content areas. Agriculture, Math, ELA, Literacy, economics, social studies, etc... Students can become one another's neighbors and help to build a community in which they care for one another's farms. A downfall to this application is that it is blocked by my district and I would suspect it would be blocked by many. If you choose to request permission from you tech department, please note that this is a web 2.0 tool.

K-12 Make phone calls, video chat, can be used for classroom activities and personal use. Con: Must register and download program, and new district permission.