Blog Post #10

In the beginning, I thought that Excel was a difficult way for a teacher to keep a grade book. Even as someone who is a digital native, I have always struggled using Excel in the past. However, after this past assignment I see a lot of benefits to using Excel as a grade book. This is mainly due to the fact that the app will average all the scores for you. This is super useful for a teacher because it gets rid of human error that can happen when adding 20+ scores at once on a calculator. Since I want to become a high school English teacher, I will most likely use Excel solely for grade book purposes. I do not see me using it to look as survey responses from my students because most of their responses will not be numerical data.

When reviewing my classmates' blogs this semester I enjoyed looking at the assignments we had to create. Whether it be the websites we had to create, class newsletters, or the ILPs I liked seeing what everyone created. Even though we all were given the same assignment each of us had a unique completed assignment. I find it interesting that we are able to have such creativity even among pretty strict rules on what we need to include. Overall, I found the blogs an enjoyable experience. 

I would like to learn about VR programming as my next technology-related skill. This is because I think there is a lot of educational value to using VR in the classroom if the program being used is appropriate. It gives kids a hands-on experience that the teacher might not have the means to create in real life. I would gain this skill by taking online classes and watching lecture videos online. I might not learn how to create a completely new program but I might gain the knowledge on how to edit existing games to be more classroom appropriate. 

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ILP #2

For my ILP#2 I decided to interview a teacher on smartboards. I thought this was a great way to connect what we have learned in class to real-life situations. In my voicethread, I began by covering what a smartboard is and how it is used in the classroom before moving onto the actual interview. You can find my project by clicking here. 



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Journal 8

Recently in class we have been working with a website called Diigo. At first, I did not see the benefits of using this website, but the more we have been using it in class the more I have seen the value of the website. It makes it easy for a class to share information with each other and annotate what they think is important from that specific website. This can be beneficial in the classroom because the teacher can check the websites students are citing for authenticity of plagiarism. It also allows teachers to share supplemental reading easier because they can highlight the key aspects, which would make students more likely to read it. I also think it would be helpful for a group of teachers in the same subject to share websites of ideas for lessons easily.
Powerpoint could be a good tool in helping students learn at each level of Bloom's Taxonomy. Say for example students are learning about Shakespeare. At the base level knowledge, the teacher could make a PowerPoint to give basic knowledge on Shakespeare for students to build off of. At the comprehension level, PowerPoint students can review the content if they forget and use it to make flash cards to help them remember the information on the slides that are already condensed to the key points. After students have learned this information, the application level can be fulfilled by students making their own PowerPoint to explain something about Shakespeare that the teacher didn't go over. The analysis level can be met by students analyzing each other's PowerPoint.  For the synthesis level, students can use PowerPoint by combining their teams' information together to make one large PowerPoint on Shakespeare. At the end, the students can Evaluate their overall learning process on PowerPoint and decide how they can improve next time.
It is important for teachers to stay up to date with the latest technology in the classroom. If teachers are not competent with the technology they are using then the students are less likely to be engaged in the lesson, even if technology is being used. Due to this, professional development is key and teachers must stay up to date with the latest technology being used in the classroom. Through my PLN on Twitter I found an online magazine called EdTech. This website is great for keeping teachers up to date with everything technology related to grades K-12. If I was a teacher this would be the website I would rely on the most to stay up with all the technology and regulations coming out concerning education.

Screenshot of the homepage of EdTech website.

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Journal 7

Twitter has always been a big part of my social media experience. However, I never thought about how it could be used in the classroom. Throughout my time using Twitter to build my PLN I truly have seen how it is such a powerful tool when it comes to discovering new information and sharing that information so easily. By following different accounts and reading what my classmates are sharing I get such a well-rounded scope of all the different ways Twitter connects people and ideas. Overall, I think it is a tool I will continue to use as I grow as an educator.
Web design has always been something I have been interested in so I was very excited to complete this assignment. In school, my teachers always had really good websites so I had knowledge of what a successful class website looked like. Also, the examples we did in class strengthened my background knowledge, which made completely the task very enjoyable. The only part I struggled with was getting Weebly to keep the format I wanted without having to be extremely careful. However, I think this something that I can work through if I continue to experiment and use the website daily. I definitely think I will use Weebly in my future career to make contact between parents and me easy and help the students remain organized digitally. If you would like to check out my website click here.

Screenshot of the home page of the website made for class assignment discussed above.

I think with modern developments assistive technology has made great strides. When we visited Tech Sandbox they explained how 3D printing can be used to add brail for blind students to be able to read puzzles or even the periodic table in order. I think personally, I would have to do a lot of prior research to the technology my student would need if they had a disability so that I could adequately guide them through the learning process. Which would be new for me since I have never met anyone or seen first-hand assistive technology in action in a learning environment.




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ILP Design

Voice Thread explaining Prezi 



For my project I decided to look at the educational tool Prezi. I believe Prezi is a super helpful tool that allows for a lot of creativity and collaborative work within groups. In the VoiceThread I talked over a Prezi presentation of what Prezi is exactly, how it can be used in education, and lastly, a demonstration of how students how to use Prezi in an English classroom. Overall, Prezi makes communication and the sharing of knowledge very easy in a classroom and is a great tool to be implemented.



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Journal 6

First, we are going to look at websites teachers keep to update their students and their parents. As an example, I choose a high school English teacher's website for his students. He has the agenda listed out under each link and each unit organized and corresponding links below. It appears that he has additional resources and breaks up the percentages of the tests for the students. He has a page about himself and an email for parents to reach him with. The teacher also has a section for helpful downloads. Overall, this website is a good example of how technology can be used as a means of making the classroom virtual and the tools accessible from any laptop with an internet connection.

A screenshot taken on  Mr.Bradley's class website.

As a teacher, I can definitely see myself using technology in multiple ways to make my class more interactive. First, I would have my students use PowerPoint or Prezi to give a presentation to the class when we cover new concepts. Doing that will force them to become more knowledgable about a subject because they will have to be able to explain it and not just give facts back. Secondly, if we studied plays, I would have them film and edit their group acting out a scene for the class to watch. I would also keep a class website so that the students would easily be able to access resources or things in class. I would keep our agenda on the website as well so that parents could follow along with what we are doing. Lastly, I would use Microsoft word for my students to digitally write up their homework and submit it.
In the Tech Sandbox, there was a bunch of cool technology that would make any classroom more interactive for students. The smartboards are a great way for kids to interact by drawing on it or playing with the games specifically designed for the boards. For a science class, the Oculus is a great way for kids to learn about the body or about the solar system. Touch desktops let kids create works of art without making a mess. The Tech Sandbox also has robots which can help kids learn about coding. By introducing something difficult like coding to young students with something like robots they are able to build a foundation of knowledge to build off of when they are old.



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Journal 4

So far using Twitter for my PLN has been super interesting. By following all these technology-related accounts for education I stay updates on schools of thought surrounding the subject and new technology. By starting out so early developing my PLN when I actually do start teaching I will have solid background knowledge and ideas from what I have learned. I also enjoy seeing what my other classmates find interesting. By following other students I am able to expand my web of knowledge and see things that I might not have thought to search out myself. Overall, I am starting to see the importance of teachers having a PLN in this modern world.
Digital divide is a huge issue in the education system. Technology has proven to make students more engaged in what they are learning and there should be equal access to technology regardless of the economy of the surrounding area to a particular school. As a teacher without access to computers I will be limited on the lessons I can teach and the different ways I can get my students involved in the classroom, which would be a big problem with older students as they are all very connected. Digital divide might also affect students down the road, as kids that have had less experience using advanced technology might lose a job offer to a student that did. I believe policies need to start being passed to help the digital divide by ensuring that kids have equal access to modern technology.
One software I would definitely use in my future classroom is Khan Acadamy. It offers so many different exercises for students and lesson plans to help teachers get inspired. It is a super useful and easy software that students can access from any computer. Another software I definitely would use is Diigo. It makes it easy for students and teachers to easily share information with each other. This would be helpful when trying to give kids supplemental reading.





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Journal 3

The ELA standard I feel most prepared to teach about is Prezi. Throughout my time in school, I have become very familiar with the software and think it is a great interactive tool for students. Prezi allows students to make more creative control over their slides than other software like Google Slides. One standard I feel less prepared for is teaching students how to use online data analysis tools. That would be something I have to experiment and teach to myself before I could properly assist a student trying to use the software efficiently.
One of the tools I would use in my classroom from CPALMS is the pre-made lesson plans. As a new teacher, it would give a good launching pad into a topic and give me ideas on how to create my own lesson plans for that specific topic in the future. Also, it would allow students to have access to an in-depth view of that topic. Overall, CPALMS is a great resource for teachers and students of all grade levels and subjects.
A new skill I required from the Newsletter assignment was how to make columns. Previously I would always use two text boxes to mimic the appearance of columns. Figuring out how to keep the layout of everything else in the spot that I want it to be. By watching videos and tinkering with the column function I was able to get true columns made on my Newsletter. Overall, I was really happy with how it turned out and I'm glad I learned how to use that function.

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Journal 2

As a student, I have become very familiar with MS Word over the years. Most testing I did in high school was turned in electronically or typed up and printed out. It even came to the point where I was no longer writing notes but typing them up on MS Word and studying from that. MS Word has become a big part of how teachers and students communicate. Teachers will send out newsletters, or post assignments as MS Word documents for students to pull up on their laptop. This has helped reduce the number of paper used, and even students saying "I lost the paper" because they will always have access to it online. Overall, MS Word is a big part of learning in modern classrooms and in my opinion for the better.

I have a lot of experience with copyright in school. We were always having to run our work through websites to check to make sure everything was correctly cited. Also in art class we were always having to make sure pictures we were using as reference were within the proper copyright. If I was a teacher I think I would deal with copyright by teaching a lesson on it and having a small quiz to make sure that my students completely understand copyright. This is because not following copyright can have very negative effects on them down the road.

I think in the digital world it is very easy to fix academic honesty. By using websites such as turnitin.com teachers are able to have their students' works checked against information out there on the internet, and even work turned in by other students in their class. For cyberbully, I think teaching about it from a young age such as we do bullying in person would help greatly fix the issue. Kids create a separation between themselves and their online actions but if we hold workshops like we do for bullying in person, kids are less likely to put up that divide. Lastly, for copyright, as I mentioned earlier I think teaching kids and testing them on that lesson is the best way to make sure they understand copyright instead of them just figuring it out on their own.




 
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Journal 1

In recent years, technology has become such a huge part of society itself. We use our phones to pay at stores instead of cards, we can keep in touch with friends across the world, and even shop at online stores instead of in person. With technology being so integrated into our everyday life its no surprise that teachers and students are influenced to use it in the classroom. By using technology that kids are already familiar with the technology becomes more of a tool than a learning task itself. Kids can now do labs with VR and the experience is just as meaningful but gets kids more engaged. For teachers integrating technology allows them to see a different kind of interest come out of students in their lessons. This is because they are incorporating things into the lesson that the students are actually interested in. Overall, technologies role in our society has a big impact on influencing teachers and students to want to integrate it into the classroom.

ISTE is an important standard for students and teachers in this digital era. For me, the goal of a student being a digital citizen is the most meaningful. By helping them get comfortable online while building a safe digital environment they are less likely to experience the negative side of the internet. With technology in the classroom students will learn to show the respect they give in real life to people online. By teaching students this from a young age, cyberbullying can be limited and it will be a safer place for everyone online. Something that is currently outside of my skill set though, is being an empowered learner through technology. While I use it to find information for papers, or personal knowledge on current events, I don't set goals for myself. I don't set up a stream of knowledge to constantly help me grow, but instead each time I search for knowledge I start new each time.

For today's youth, I think it is a very accurate label to them as "digital natives." This is because by definition of digital native is a person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and therefore familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age. Today's youth from a young age has been given access to advanced technology and as it has progressed has had hands-on experience with the latest version. This allows for them to create a strong background knowledge which in turn enables them to master unfamiliar technology quicker than other generations. You see this with students helping teachers get websites or presentations to work in class. Even though the students may have never used this software before because they have this knowledge from such a young age they are able to teach the teacher instead of the other way around. As a digital native, it makes learning frustrating at times because you get upset that you are having to explain what you view as basic knowledge to your own teacher. However, when digital natives become a teacher, I think this will no longer be an issue for students like it is today.





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Initial Post

Hello!

I am a freshman at Florida State University and this is my blog for Intro to Education Technology. I recently just got back from studying abroad in London, England. I'm majoring in English Education, and one day hope to teach English in other parts of the world. Along with reading, I enjoy going to different art museums and exploring new cities. 

View from Westminster Abby Garden
London, England

In the past, I have not had a lot of experiences with "fancy" technology in the educational setting. I have used smartboards, laptops, and different types of websites from Prezi to Kahoot, but nothing very different from any other student. I do have experience with photoshop and apps regarding photography that most typical students haven't. Overall, I feel like I have a lot of basic skills for things like Word, Powerpoint, and Google docs, but nothing too in detail.

In this class, I hope to learn how to use technology effectively in the classroom. I want to teach kids in high school, which is an age group that is typically very familiar with the latest technology. By being able to incorporate technology that they use for leisure I will be able to engage them more with the curriculum. Overall, if I gain a good understanding of the different ways to use technology in the classroom, I will feel like I have gained a lot from this course. 

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