Blog Journal 10

After the experiences I went through with the tool of collecting data through surveys, I believe that I will be able to use it as a teacher. The subject matter I would use it for would be English or Language Arts since that’s what I aspire to teach in the future, and the grade level would probably be middle or high school students. I would use this tool to get the feedback of students about what should be done differently or kept the same to make sure they are learning effectively in my class. In regards to reporting by using Excel for example, I would use this tool to keep track of the progress of students as a teacher in order to pay close attention to any changes made in their work.

There are many topics that I found very interesting from reviewing the blogs of my classmates. One of them was about their views on adaptive and assistive technology and the different tools they discovered based off of the research they made. Another one was how interaction can be incorporated by using PowerPoint in a variety of ways to engage students. The independent learning projects we created that had to do with design were also interesting in my opinion because I got the chance to see the different tools my classmates used.

A technology-related skill that I would like to learn next would be how to reach out to the parents or guardians of the students I teach in the future. This is because a lot of technology in the field of education mostly aim towards the relationships between teachers and students, which is why having this new skill would be beneficial as well. I would probably achieve this goal by communicating with teachers that have had more experience than myself to get further insights about how they reach out to parents themselves. Conducting additional research about technology that is related to this skill would help me accomplish this as well.

Blog Journal 9

The concept of a “flipped classroom” is a different strategic way of instructing students in a classroom setting. The traditional style of learning normally incorporated is reversed through this strategy for students to participate more in class. For example, homework assignments that would usually be given for students to complete outside of class would now be included in class. This allows students to prepare for class activities beforehand and practice applying key concepts with feedback in class afterwards. As a result, they will be able to check their understanding once they are no longer in the classroom after the “flipped classroom” strategy is put into place.

Open educational resources are types of resources that are available for others in the public to use. They can be used in five different ways, with some of them being through revision or redistribution. This is really helpful for educators since they can use resources like these as teaching material for their classrooms, or they can even create their own resources that can be put out in the open for others to use as well. An online resource I found that fits into the category of OER is Khan Academy. This resource is an organization that provides tutorials and exercises for teachers and students to use, and the best part about it is that it’s free. Open educational resources are all free of charge anyways, so this is another great advantage of this asset. Attached is a link with more information about the online resource of Khan Academy.

https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Khan-Academy

The two PowerPoint assignments that I worked on recently were for Information Dissemination and Interaction. Some new skills that I acquired from them were how to use the action feature to add buttons to my slides, how to make adjustments to the mouse clicking feature, and how to add sound to the slides I created as well. What I liked about the skills I learned was how the buttons allow people who are using PowerPoint to go back and forth through transitions. However, what I disliked was disabling the mouse clicking feature since I’m already used to clicking the mouse for the advancement of each slide. I also disliked how there were limited sounds available, and I couldn’t figure out how to add more sound effects that would be relatable to what I was applying them to. In spite of these dislikes, I can improve my work in regards to using PowerPoint by being more familiar with the usage of buttons instead of clicking. I can also research more on how to download sounds into PowerPoint in order to make it more appealing. Attached are screenshots of the PowerPoint assignments I created.

ILP "Design" - Kahoot!

This is my second Independent Learning Project, and I decided to choose design. The tool that I used for this project was Kahoot! in order to create an educational content. We have not used this tool in this classroom before, but I have used it previously during my high school years. It's very helpful for teachers to create study materials such as quizzes for students to engage in, and I can honestly say that I had a wonderful time creating the content that I made during this project!

Attached is a link to the Voice Thread of this Independent Learning Project.

https://voicethread.com/share/13252869/

Blog Journal 8

There are many new skills that I learned from working with Diigo these past couple of days. One of these skills is being able to filter different categories in a group by selecting bookmarks or topics only, or all at once. This application can be useful in my classroom in order to narrow down what is being searched in a group more easily. With team members, different links can be posted so that others can view what has been discovered and highlighted by another team member. In regards to my individual professional efforts, an application that can be used in Diigo is posting questions on the topics section that others can answer through discussions.

PowerPoint can be used to support student learning at each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy in a particular lesson in a variety of ways. Analyzing is one of the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, and PowerPoint can be used to support this through one of its layouts. There is a layout that includes two text boxes below the header that are side by side. Because of this feature, analyzation can be incorporated to compare and contrast information using these text boxes that are right next to each other on a PowerPoint slide. Creating is another level in this set that can allow students to make their own designs when using PowerPoint to develop projects in a lesson, for example.

Technology is being advanced each and every day and contributes to education by being incorporated in classrooms for learning. Teacher professional development is important in many ways, including technology, since it shows that educators are putting in the effort to improve their skills in what they do. One of the many sites that I can use to stay informed of technology trends is EdTech Update. This site brings together the best content for education technology professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders for individuals such as myself to stay updated on what’s new. Attached is a link and a screenshot of the site.

https://www.edtechupdate.com/tools/

Blog Journal 7

While using Twitter, what I have learned so far is that you are not able to go back and edit a tweet. I tried to do this after realizing a hashtag I forgot to include and quickly became aware of how what has been tweeted can’t be edited unless it’s completely deleted, or a thread is created to explain a correction. However, the benefits of using Twitter are being able to see the tweets of other, liking them, and even replying to them. In regards to any issues I’m experiencing, not being able to make edits is honestly the only issue I have had; other than that, my experience with Twitter thus far has been wonderful!

Some new skills I acquired from the Web Design assignment I recently completed were the ways that I took my audience into consideration. Creating the web design required me to always be cautious about how appealing it would be for parents and students accessing it and how it would be helpful to them. What I liked about the web design was how I was able to make it my own, personalised website where I can make my own arrangements within it. However, what I didn’t like about it were the difficulties of adjusting images to be formatted correctly around the text. What I learned from this assignment can help me to improve next time and in my future career by making it a better resource for students and parents when they encounter my class pages. Attached is a screenshot and link to my website.

Assistive technologies are used to support learners by giving them the tools to use based on the disabilities they have as individuals. On the other hand, adaptive technologies are used to assist with completing activities of daily living. The challenges I perceive using adaptive technologies in my classroom would be that there is a chance of them being rarely used by students who are not familiar with the advancements made in technology that are meant for most people to adapt to. If some students don’t have access to upgraded forms of technology, they won’t feel comfortable using adaptive ones that are incorporated in the classroom.

http://tjlangarts.weebly.com/

Blog Journal 6

During my personal experiences in my classes, I have never really been familiar with teacher pages on a school website. It’s such a coincidence that I have realized this very recently because of the field observations I do for my Introduction to Education course. The school that includes the teacher pages I’ve seen previously is the Florida State University Schools which consists of grade levels K-12; however, the grade of students I have been focusing on are middle school students, which are 6-8. After visiting class pages of this school website such as the one made by the English teacher I observe, I’ve seen many kinds of public information. There is an About section that lists the teacher’s personal data, educational background, and professional experience. Other sections are categorized by the specific subjects that are taught, which include syllabi, expectations, lesson plans, and units. Attached are a couple of screenshots and a link to the site.

I envision myself using technology to accomplish my professional responsibilities more efficiently and effectively in many ways. Referring back to the class pages mentioned before, I would be able to create my own websites for professional uses as well in the workforce. Since I have plans of becoming a teacher in the future, this would be beneficial for students and parents to gain more information about myself and what I would be teaching in my classes. Having a website would be more structured as well and convenient for students in this generation who are more familiar with the use of technology.

Visiting the Technology Sandbox was a great experience that allowed me to have a better understanding of a wide variety of tools that can be used. I believe that many of the technology I learned about could be used in the classroom. One of them was the SmartBoard, which had the feature of being able to touch the board with your finger or the markers attached to make your own creations. This would be helpful for students to be more engaged and active in the classroom while using this board to solve math problems together, for example, as well as for teachers to display online information for everyone to view. Another technology was the Merge Cube, which enables you to scan a cube of codes by using a smartphone in order to display an interactive image on the phone screen as a result. This can be used in the classroom during lesson plans for teachers to elaborate how certain things work more in depth such as the human body, the solar system, and much more.

https://www.fsus.school/Page/987

Blog Journal 5

With my initial experiences using Diigo, there are many things that I liked and some things that I didn’t like. One of the things about Diigo that I liked was the ability to work with others while not necessarily having to be in each other’s presence. I also liked the feature of being able to highlight information in articles, annotating, and commenting on the annotations of others since we’re able to view what they highlight and annotate as well. On the other hand, something that I disliked about using Diigo was having to redownload the Chrome extension every time I log back into the computer I use. It would be much simpler to just have this extension permanently installed on the computer, but overall this hasn’t been a big deal to me.

I have had a lot of experiences with blogging so far that I found to be very interesting. Something I like about blogging is how it’s similar to journaling, but in a different way since it doesn’t require the traditional method of using a pen and paper. There’s nothing that I necessarily don’t like about blogging, because I genuinely enjoy every aspect of it! What I have learned so far during the blogging process is how it can be personalized, which was mentioned in one of the Web 2.0 tool articles I read in class. Unlike other tools such as social media, blogging can be someone’s own, individual tool that they can customize and edit at any time without any interferences.

All of the Web 2.0 tools that I have learned about recently seem to be interesting to me because of the different features they consist of. However, an interesting Web 2.0 tool that I might use when teaching is Storybird, which is an engaging and easy-to-use tool for creating short, visual stories. Since I’m majoring in English Education and plan on teaching in the future, I would incorporate this tool with my students by giving them the opportunity to make their own creations. These creations can then be published on the web with adjustable privacy settings, and there is also the option to allow comments which would be perfect for me as a teacher to encourage student collaboration. Attached is a link to the tool; enjoy!

https://storybird.com

Blog Journal 4

I haven’t had any early experiences using Twitter before enrolling in this class, since the social media tools that I do actually use are only Instagram and Snapchat. However, now that I am using Twitter, I’m starting to get the hang of it by tweeting, retweeting, replying to tweets, creating threads, and following others. Lately, I have been interacting with my classmates as well as other students who are in this Introduction to Educational Technology class. I have found it beneficial by reading the experiences they go through during this class with the assignments they are completing that are similar to mine. Twitter might be helpful in my future career by possibly using this same method for the students I will be teaching to allow them to communicate with their peers in the same manner.

The digital divide is a term used to explain the great differences between students who don’t have the same accessibility to technology. The digital divide affects student success in schools in many ways, with one of them being completing school work. If certain assignments require using technology that they are not able to reach, this can hinder their possibilities to succeed academically. Some causes of the digital divide may be if a student is a minority who comes from a very low-income family that doesn’t have the opportunity of being supplied with the technology they might need. As a classroom teacher, I may experience having a student in this situation; this will affect my teaching strategies by allowing me to take note of the adjustments that need to be made in homework assignments for example that would be advantageous for these specific students.

There are many academic softwares that are available for students to use and be engaged with during their learning process. One of the many software tools I would like to use in my future classroom is Google Classroom. This is a tool created by google to aid with communication between teachers and students, and I would like to use it with my future students because I’ve experienced how helpful it has been for me while I was in high school. Another tool I would like to use with them is Kahoot, which is a game-based learning tool where questions can be created for students to answer for reviewing purposes. I would like to use this tool as well because of the playful aspect it incorporates that would get my future students interested in learning.

ILP “Design” – Google Classroom

This is my first Independent Learning Project, and to start off I chose design. The tool that I used for this project was Google classroom in order to create an educational content. We have not used this tool in this classroom before, but I have used it previously during my high school years. It's very helpful for teachers and students to communicate with each other, and I can honestly say that I had a great experience creating the content that I made during this first project!

Attached is a link to the Voice Thread of my Independent Learning Project.

https://voicethread.com/share/13097841/

Blog Journal 3

Based on the grade levels I’m more interested in teaching which are in high school, one of the ELA technology standards I feel most prepared to teach with my existing knowledge would be making strategic use of digital media in presentations. I would be able to successfully work with this standard to teach others because I find it interesting when it comes to introducing new topics and having a better understanding of what has been found by presenting different types of evidence. Another one would be writing informative/explanatory texts, which I’m very knowledgeable of due to the fact that I’ve taken many literature classes that have helped me to be more of an expert about how to write well and present information clearly through writing. However, an ELA technology standard I feel requires more learning on my part is determining or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases. Improving my perspective of vocabulary is important in my opinion, but most times I find it hard to view words differently in order to give them more meaning; therefore, I would need to work more on this standard personally.

One of the resources in the CPALMS Educator Toolkit that I noticed was an original student tutorial about how a theme is developed in short poetry. This resource is basically about how themes are developed from different types of writings such as poems by having support from words and phrases that are included in them. I would use this resource in my classroom because it would help students to think more critically about the message being portrayed in a writing. I don’t believe that it’s enough to simply read something and not gain any deeper understanding about what has been read. Referring back to Bloom’s Taxonomy that we discussed in class previously, making analyzations and evaluations while learning is what I believe makes the overall process of learning more effective.

From working on the Newsletter Design assignment we were given to create, some new skills that I acquired from it are how to create borders around the perimeter of certain texts as well as how to divide a body into separate columns. I liked this assignment because it helped me to be more aware of all of the possible features that can be used in Microsoft Word. A way that I can improve it next time would be by making it more appealing by using even more of the features listed in the High Pass section that I didn’t fully take advantage of. Also, what I learned from the assignment can be used in my future career by creating additional newsletters that can be sent out to the parents of students in order to keep them updated about what goes on in the classroom.

Blog Journal 2

As a student, there are many ways that I have needed to use Microsoft Word. One of them is when I needed to type out essays for classes such as Literature, Diversity and Justice, and even in most of my high school classes. I have also used Microsoft Word because of the spelling check feature it has, which seems to be very helpful while I type. Before I submit an assignment on canvas that has to do with a discussion post for example, I would always type it out into MS Word in order to see if I have made any grammatical errors before officially submitting it to the discussion board. I have seen teachers use MS Word when it comes to creating a syllabus for a specific class. They have also used it for templates in order to allow students to fill them out as a worksheet as well.

During my years of education so far, I have had many experiences with copyright and fair use of materials in an educational environment. I can’t explain how much the importance of giving credit to those who have created sources has been stressed upon students like me by teachers. Because of this, I’ve learned to include citations when I use articles and other information as back up for my work. As a teacher, I would deal with these concepts and develop my own instructional materials by giving students the chance to familiarize themselves with websites such as Purdue OWL which would teach them how to successfully cite sources while creating their own work.

A solution that I could implement in my classroom in regards to the technology implementation issue of cyberbullying would be to play interactive videos about how this affects students similar to those in the classroom who are dealing with it. Once they were to see how harmful this is to others, they would realize that it shouldn’t be done and prevent it whenever they see it happen around them. When it comes to the issue of academic dishonesty, I believe that the best way to bring a solution to this issue would be to show the laws that have been created that show the consequences of doing so. I would also give examples of previous individuals who have had to face these consequences as a result of being academically dishonest. Seeing this would alert students and make them feel the urge to be even more careful when it comes to being honest in academics.

Blog Journal 1

I believe that what influences teachers to use technology in the classroom is its convenience. Technology is created to help people who are using it to do new things in a more effective way. Therefore, teachers are influenced by it in order to incorporate it into lesson plans for instance as well as assignments for students. When it comes to students, they are influenced by the use of technology in the classroom by being more interested in learning through it. Even though this may not be true for students in general since not everyone is as intrigued about technology compared to others, it is still considered to be a big aid for students in their learning process.

While analyzing the ISTE standards for educators, a standard that I found to be meaningful was the Leader standard. This is because I believe that it’s very important to advocate for access to educational technology and learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students. However, a standard I found to be outside my current skill set would have to be the Designer standard. This is because I feel like it would be difficult for me to create original learning experiences and personalize them with the use of technology.

Being a digital native means having a relationship with technology at a young age. In my opinion, I don’t agree with the label “digital native” for today’s youth because not everyone in the youth category is accustomed to technology for many reasons. Some of these may be that they were not raised in an area where technology was widespread during their young ages, or their parents probably didn’t give them the opportunity of adapting to certain types of technology either. Differences that I’ve seen between how myself and most of my teachers use technology is when it comes to social media. After graduating from high school, I’ve had connections through social media with some of my previous teachers. For example, I have noticed that a lot of them post information about educational events, while young people like myself post about what goes on in our lives besides education. The differences that I anticipate between myself and my future students in terms of how I use technology is that I can hopefully be able to meet their diverse needs through it since not every student has the same level of familiarity with it.

Blog Set-Up

My name is Tarah Jean and I am a sophomore attending Florida State University coming in as a first year student. My hometown is Lehigh Acres, Florida, which is not commonly known by most people since it is relevantly small. I'm a part of the CARE program here at FSU, which stands for Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement. Through this program, I participated in the Summer Bridge Program over the summer, which was a wonderful experience that allowed me to prepare myself for this fall. I am also majoring in English Education since I have an interest in teaching and love to dance as well as spend quality time with my friends and family.

I have had a lot of prior experiences using technology in an educational setting. One of the main ones that I remember from my high school years is Google Classroom, which is similar to a physical classroom setting but is instead online. This was very helpful for me and other students in order to communicate with other pears, teachers, and submit assignments. Another use of technology that I encountered over the years is quizlet, which is basically a study guide that helps students to review material needed for a variety of different subjects. Through these technologies and many others, I believe that they have been very beneficial in the learning process of students and in the educational setting as well.

In this class, I hope to learn how to create different websites similar to the ones I have been familiar with. Since I have the desire of becoming a teacher in the future, this would be a great advantage for me because I would have the skills needed to help others with the knowledge I will be gaining in this class. In my opinion, technology is a useful source that is appealing to students and allows them to be interested in what they're learning about. I'm not only taking this class because of a requirement, but I am also interested in everything I'll be learning throughout it as well.