Blog Assignment 13

ALEX
ALEX, Alabama Learning Exchange, is a useful website for teachers. When you visit the page, you view a little introduction where what seems to be sun expands and shines in front of the word ALEX. You could think of it as a symbol of the resources you'll find when visiting ALEX. It's going to sound cheesy, but it's like ALEX is the light that will bring effective tools to improve your classroom. After viewing the introduction, visitors are brought to the home page with eight links. A visitor's clickable options are as follows: "Courses of Study", "Web Links", "Lesson Plans", "Search", "Personal Workspace", "Professional Learning", "Podcast Treasury", and "ALEXville". No matter which option you click, you will be provided with countless helpful resources.

Basically, ALEX is a website where teachers share lesson plans or other learning materials that they have used in their classroom before, found on the internet or in their school, or created on ALEX. Clicking on "Personal Workspace" allows teachers to create lesson plans and other learning materials to share. "Courses of Study" allows you to search through shared files by subject and grade level. "Lesson Plans" allows you to search only for shared lesson plans by subject and grade level. "Web Links" acts as a portal to beneficial web resources for teachers, administration, and students on other websites. "Podcast Treasury" provides podcasts published by teachers and organizations, such as the Exploreum. "Professional Learning" contains valuable information on grant opportunities, ALEX training opportunities, professional development opportunities, and how to best use internet tools in your classroom. They even had a section about Google, which we already know is very valuable. "Search" is a way for teachers to search through the entire ALEX database. Last, but not least, "ALEXville" is a type of professional learning community. It has news on local educational projects, news provided by ALEXville, and what seems to be a type of forum style community for teachers to join.

When I first started browsing ALEX, I was very impressed. I knew immediately that this would be a tool essential to my first few years of teaching. Also, it acted as a great conversation starter with my mom. I told her about our assignment and she discussed ALEX with me. She told me how beneficial it was to her in the beginning. The only reason she hasn't visited it in a while is because she is in her "groove". She told me that once some teachers have been teaching for a few years, they tend to start using the same learning materials. They slightly modify them each year, but they have a set plan. She isn't saying she'll never use ALEX again, but as of now she has a set plan. When she needs something new, she'll visit ALEX and search elsewhere. Like my mother, I definitely see myself using ALEX my first few years. I can even share it with people who are unaware of this beneficial site.



ACCESS Distance Learning
ACCESS, an acronym for Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide, is a learning initiative created by Bob Riley's Task Force on Distance Learning on November 1, 2004. This learning initiative is available to all Alabama public high school students. As stated on the website, Access provides "equal access to high quality instruction, an infrastructure that delivers quality learning opportunities, and greater equity for all Alabama public high school students through 21st century technology".

In the "Courses" section, the website offers information on graduation exams, Advanced Placement exams, and instructions for online courses. In the "Educators" section, administrators, teachers, and counselors can find ways to expand their school's course offerings and teach for ACCESS. ACCESS's "Resources" section has links to test prep, homework help, and other resources like ALEX. The "Student" section provides information for students and parents about the ACCESS program, exams, and courses.

To be honest, it took me a lot longer to figure out ACCESS compared to ALEX. I knew that I was looking at a tool for teachers, but I was also looking at a resource for students and parents. Some of the information is still being worked on, according to the website, but what is already there is quite valuable. I also thought it was wonderful that ACCESS contained information on ISTE, something I was introduced to by Beth Still.