In the future, I aspire to educate either other adults or elementary school aged students: Kindergarten and First Grade students to be exact. As I am on an intellectual adventure to be the best educator I can be, My Full Sail education acts as a compass, guiding me in the right direction. Recently, my educational quest for wonderfully, exciting, and innovative ways to engage students in the process of teaching and learning has lead me to a fantastic site. The site, www.Go2Web20.com, gives users access to a plethora of Web 2.0 sites available in one spot.
("Mind 360," 2009)
While there were many resources for me to choose from, the site I found to be most useful to my quest is www.mind360.com. Mind 360 offers users a chance to strengthen their minds through a series of games and exercises. Upon arrival to the site, users are prompted to sign up for an age appropriate account. A major con for this site is that it costs money to use the services. Subscribers can sign up for Mind 360 on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. I choose to sign up for the free trial, which gives users limited access to the games and other activities.
("Mind 360," 2009)
The page is set up with four tabs. They are entitled, My Profile, Training Room, The Games and Challenges. Under My Profile, a user’s progression is tracked and monitored. The Training Room Options include progressive programs designed to assess or develop your weakest critical skills. The Games page is set up to address critical skills broken down into categories. These categories include, Memory, Attention, Executive Function, Logic and Reasoning, and Visual Perception. On The Challenges page, users have a chance to see how their skills compare to other users.
Idealistically, I would use this website to work with my adult students as a daily warm up exercise. My students would get assessed and I would have the opportunity to see what skills needed strengthening and provide for an effective way to strengthen those skills. My younger students, like my Kindergarten/First Grade learners, would need a little help with the assessment at first. But I am confident that the younger students can participate in many of the available games.
In review, off all the sites www.Go2Web20.com had to offer, I found www.mind360.com to be the most useful. This site combines many of the attributes I have been looking for. Mind 360 tracks, accesses, engages and strengthens the skills of my learners. I can use this site for adults and children as well. The down side is that convenience comes at a weekly, monthly or yearly fee, which overtime can become costly. Overall it is the best site for my situation and I recommend that everyone check it out.
-t meko fortney
Reference:
Mind 360. Accessed November 29, 2009. http://www.mind360.com.
loggers. Today I set up my Google Reader Account. Listed below are five site titles relevant to my situation. As an aspiring teacher for the Atlanta Public School System, I choose the first two because they provide information on matters that can directly affect my teaching and learning environment. My other 3 choices allow for growth and expansion of my craft. 
