AS12 - Concept Mapping

ILP "Participation" - Sports Psychology

When I went to the Sports Psychology lab, I learned a lot about how trainers keep their athletes' minds' sharp and strengthen their mental ability when it comes to playing their sport. The guide showed us numerous pieces of technology that they use to exercise their players' brains, including multi-focus technology, eye-tracking devices, motion sensor simulations, and even GoPros. He showed us examples of how they use the technology during sessions with a player, and tried to give examples of how we could use the technology in our classrooms. One great example of classroom application involved the eye-tracking device. It could be used to analyze behaviors and tendencies of newer teachers and help them grow in their field. We could look at what aspects of the classroom newer teachers focus the most on or which students they pay the most attention to, and watch those first-person videos together with the teacher in order to train their abilities to be more well rounded when it comes to classroom scanning and student supervision, as well as be more aware of classroom activity as a whole. It could also be used to analyze more experienced teachers to see what they focus the most on and how they divide their focus across the classroom in order to gain insight on what newer teachers need to be focusing on during the class day. I think this is an incredibly great use of technology in the classroom, and I would totally be willing to be a subject of this type of activity in order to improve my teaching and classroom management abilities. He also showed us how GoPros can be attached to and record athletes during practices in order to critique their movements and improve their skills, as well as to see where they may be going wrong during a play.

There weren't too many technologies we could all try out on our own this time, but we did go through one specific one together, which was somewhat of a multi-focus piece of technology, where players are required to look at a small screen in the middle of a board that asks them to complete math problems or read passages, while also trying to press buttons that light up all around the board. This gets them to strengthen their ability to multi-task and pay attention to multiple different stimuli, which is incredibly valuable in sports, since you always have to be focusing on your movements as well as the players around you.

Overall, I really enjoyed going to the Sports Psychology lab and seeing how we use technology in many different aspects to improve skills in our everyday lives. I'm always astounded by what we are able to create to train our minds and advance our capabilities within a field.

Blog Post #10

I think using Data Collection tools are greatly beneficial to your teaching experience. You can use them to collect data regarding how well a students know material, student views and opinions about classroom topics, and create surveys to learn more about your students as people. For example, if you're teaching a 5th grade history class, you can use data collection tools in various ways. You can make a survey about certain historical figure's beliefs, like Abraham Lincoln or Susan B. Anthony, to let students see how they relate to and agree/disagree with that figure and their ideas about certain topics. You can also use surveys to conduct short quizzes or tests to get a feel for how well your students know the material you've been covering, asking questions like "When did the Civil War start?" or "What group of soldiers fought from the south?" Another use of data collection tools in a history class would be to create a survey presenting questions about how they've enjoyed a unit, asking questions like "How well did you enjoy this unit about the Civil War? or "Did the classroom activities and projects make this unit more enjoyable?" in order to see how you could improve your classroom to make students more interested, as well as see how what you've already done is working.

One topic that I found very interesting and helpful was Daniel's post about technology resources. He provided a link to a super helpful website called "Educational Technology and Mobile Learning" that provided tons of resources and articles about useful technology that could be used in the classroom. I had a hard time finding a good resource to put in my own blog post, so now that I know about this website, I can better keep up with educational technology advances and not have to weed through tons of technology posts. Another topic that I found interesting was in Morgan's post about Bloom's taxonomy and PowerPoint. She did an amazing job applying it to a lesson about gravity, addressing each level of Bloom's in an aspect of PowerPoint, including addressing Analyze by having a list of questions on a slide asking students which object they think will hit ground first, if they will reach at the same time, and then why did they think one way or another. A third topic I found super interesting was Rachel's post about Web 2.0 tools. She talked about a resource called Dragdis, which is a visual bookmarking tool that allows users to click and drag images into a sidebar that allows users to save the images under certain folder names to make resources more organized. You can also share findings with other users, and they will get instant updates when the people they follow add new images. This is a great online resource that I am happy to know about and potentially use in my future classroom to find images for lessons, share images with fellow teachers, and allow students to contribute helpful resources as well.

Another technology-related skill I would like to learn next is is how to create a grade book, attendance sheet, or any other database related material in Excel. I know we just went over the basics in class, but I think it would be super beneficial to see Excel applied to actual future uses in the classroom so we are not only prepared to use those applications in the classroom, but also know the in's and out's of how to use them so minimal mistakes are made when presenting student information/data. I can achieve this goal by looking up some online grade book and attendance sheet resources that can be applied to the Excel program, and analyze how they work in order to make my own and practice the motions that are needed to accurately form my own material.

Blog Post #9

A flipped classroom involves students listening to prerecorded video lectures for homework before coming to class, and use class time to work with content in group or individual activities and with their teachers in order to deepen understanding of the content. This allows for students to become active learners engaged in exploration and discovery within the content's framework. Teachers can use various technologies to record and share their instruction with their students, whether it be through a closed network, website, blog, or YouTube. A great source of educational videos that could be used for online instruction is www.brightstorm.com

This podcast talks about how open education, open content, and open source all affect the classroom. Open education involves making educational experiences available to a wide audience. This includes lessons on various material being available online for anyone to use when they please. A great source to access open education is https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm which offers free courses and materials. Open content specifies what people can and cannot do with the educational material they find online. It is made up of four credentials, including reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute. Reuse includes using material for your own needs, whereas redistribution includes putting the material out into a different means of access to be used by others. Remix and revise includes modifying content on it's own or to be combined with other useful related content. A great source to access open content is http://search.getty.edu/ which provides free access to periodicals, photographs, and many other resources on a variety of topics. Open source includes software whose source code is available for anyone to access, allowing for people to modify or add new features to it. A great form of open source software is Linux, which is a free computer operating system that can be used on PC's.

Some new skills I gained from working on this assignment is using action buttons to make presentations more interactive and including audio throughout a presentation. I really liked creating questions and linking the answers to multiple slides in order to navigate through the presentation. The only thing I was hesitant about was making sure everything linked to the correct slides. I think I could improve my presentation by making it a bit more interesting with animation, but I wanted to make the presentation as clean and clear as possible. I think this assignment was a great way to prepare me for making these types of interactive presentations and quizzes for my students in the future!

Blog Post #8

Some skills I've gained from working on the website assignment is how to format a website, create new pages of content, and include pictures and links to helpful information. One of the things I really liked about the assignment was that it gave me a taste of what my future may hold: Uploading helpful materials, announcements, links to study help, calendar of assignments, and everything else that a teacher could provide for their students. I surprisingly had a really fun time doing this assignment and got really into the whole thing. The only thing I disliked a bit was the limitations of design/format that came with using weebly. There were some things I wanted to do including placement of pictures or text that just weren't possible with the layouts that I tried. I think my website could be improved by making it a little more inviting and exciting for the students and parents. The layout I chose was the one I liked most out of the ones provided to me, so I definitely think if I had a bit more options or had used a different website maker, I could have gone in a bit of a different direction with my webpage. After completing this assignment, I feel pretty confident in my ability to make an actual one for my future classes!

Here's a link to my website: http://annie-eme2040.weebly.com/

Blooms Taxonomy includes many levels: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. Powerpoint can be a great way to tap into each one of these levels during a classroom lesson. Remember can be presented through slides of previously learned material that serves as a basis for the current lesson, like making sure students remember how to plot points and identify the x and y-axis. Understand can be presented through slides of the new information/material that includes the basis information from the remember level, like how to find the slope of a line using those plotted points, and giving the formula for point-slope form. Apply can be presented through students completing slides of practice problems involving finding the slope of a line and putting it in point-slope form in order to apply the information they've just learned. Analyze can be presented through slides that present information that look closer at particular parts of the formula and how they affect the graph, including what the y-intercept does and how slopes of perpendicular lines relate to each other. Evaluate can be presented through a slide of a quick quiz or in order to see if the students retained and understood the material just gone over in the lesson. Create can be presented through slides asking students to come up with their own points and applying them to the point-slope formula, and then plotting that line to show representation of the line and mastery of the material.

One website that keeps track of all of the latest technology trends is: https://www.wired.com/

Wired provides in-depth coverage of current and future trends in technology and how they are shaping different aspects of everyday life, including business, entertainment, communications, science, politics, etc. It provides endless articles and resources of the newest developed technology and how they are making their mark on the world, as well as what their development means for the progress of our society.

Blog Post #7

Adaptive technologies are technologies that help people with disabilities or special needs more effectively use computing equipment, whether it be helping students to write, read, do math, or organize abstract ideas. Through the technologies, students are given the ability to use voice recognition software such as text-to-speech or talking word processing programs to type their ideas or assignments or read displayed text to them, as well as use word prediction software to predict what the student wants to say based on the first letters the student types, so they don't have to exhaust their energy if they have problems dealing with a keyboard. There's even talking spell-checkers that students can read aloud the misspelled word and it gives a list of suggestions of what they meant/how it is spelled just like how it does for us who can type. Students can also use a track ball or joy stick to navigate a computer if they are unable to use a standard mouse, or various types of keyboards such as expanded, mini, one-handed, and on-screen depending on their specific needs. Reading technologies can help students with disabilities or special needs easily access and keep up with reading materials though recorded books if they are unable to read due to mental or physical disabilities, as well as use high-interest low-vocabulary books that help lower-level reading students through narrations with different characters spoken in different tones and reading sounds more dramatically, which captures those students' attention more easily. Scan/read systems also provide students with the option of providing a visually enhanced display that is also read aloud to them, while also using optical character recognition to track the students' eye movements in order to type what they want to say. There are also more easily accessible forms of adaptive technologies for students through Apple devices, which can place traditional text on screen in different text sizes and with different contrast levels to make it easier for the student to read, while also providing additional features that help support struggling readers such as the Speak Selection feature, Multitouch textbooks, and iBooks. Specific applications that provide these services include StickyKeys and Mousekeys. My sister has some type of visual impairment that makes it hard for her to focus on small text in books or on computers, so she has used a lot of text-magnifying tools to help her read assignments for class. My next door neighbor, whose daughter has Down Syndrome, uses a lot of the technologies I mentioned above such as modified keyboards and recorded books to help her with assignments and communication in school. Some challenges I could see using adaptive technologies in the classroom is getting both the student and the teacher to fully understand how to use the tools and effectively use them in the classroom, as well as determining which adaptive technology would best suit the student based on their needs.

One of the technologies I saw in the Sorts Psychology Lab that I believe could be greatly beneficial in schools was the eye-tracking software. This could be used to see where students' attention lies in the classroom most of the time, as well as what items they focus on the most to help process new ideas and information, and what distractions may be around them that are impairing their learning. It could also be used on new teachers to help train them to scan the classroom and notice specific things going on so that they don't miss potential trouble or critical advancements in student thinking during activities.

After using Diigo in class, I learned how to highlight website information I believe to be important, add notes to specific passages or lines of text, and save it to a group so that others can access my annotated information! I think this could be greatly beneficial to students who need to read and annotate long text by highlighting key information and reflecting on ideas presented in the reading. This could also be a great tool for fellow teachers and me to share materials and lesson tools with each other that they believe to be beneficial to the classroom. As far as group work, the activity in class showed me that students could easily access the same information and annotate while also making comments on other students' ideas, forming a more valuable and broad understanding of the material.

ILP "Participation" - Tech Sandbox

When I went to the Tech Sandbox, I learned a whole deal about the new technology we could implement in our classrooms in order to increase student's learning experiences and get them excited about the material they are learning in the classroom! This included things like 3-D printers, Smart Tables, Smart Boards, Virtual Reality (Google Cardboard and Oculus Rift), Note Taking Apps and Devices, and Letter/Shape Recognition Tools. They showed us how to use each form of technology, and gave examples of how we could apply it to specific lessons as well as classroom activity in general. For example, when students are learning about the human body, a teacher could use virtual reality equipment and download an animated simulation of a journey through the human body in order to give students and incredibly in depth look at the material, as well as make the lesson a ton more exciting than reading about the circulatory system or parts of the heart in a textbook. After class, I looked into if there was any virtual reality videos for math concepts, and there was! It would be awesome if I could include material like this in my lesson, since I believe it would really get the students excited about concepts. Another example was using a Letter/Shape Recognition Tool. You attach this camera sensor on the top of an iPad in a stand, and place shapes and letters compatible with the app software under the camera based on the question it is asking on the app. It was definitely one of the most unique things I saw in the Tech Sandbox. I could totally see this being used in younger-aged classrooms when they are learning how to spell and complete gaps in words. They said it also has higher level capabilities of dealing with mathematic concepts, and I would've been really interested in seeing how that worked and what type of things it asked about. I might go back and look into that more so I can see if I'd be able to use something like that in the future. Overall, a lot of the examples of how to use the technology were oriented towards younger-aged classrooms, and not high school like I intend to teach. So, as we were going through the tour, I tried to think a lot about how I could mess around with the technology to make it more appropriate for older students and orient it for more complicated lessons and material.

In Tech Sandbox, I probably spent the most time looking at the Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard. I have always been so fascinated by virtual reality and remember when the Oculus first got released, but I had never seen or tried one in person before. It was such a cool experience being immersed in this virtual world and experiencing it as if it was actually happening around me. I also got to keep one of the structures that the 3-D printer made. Seeing it being formed one small stroke at a time was really interesting, and I was astounded by the ability of the printer to create a printing of chains, with each individual chain linked together. I still don't know how it was able to do that, and I'm so excited for the future of 3-D printing to be more accessible to students who are interested in these types of technology. Lastly, I got to play around with Sphero. I was obsessed with the model of BB-8 they came out with when Force Awakens was released, but it was definitely out of my price range for something I probably wouldn't use too much anyway. It was so much fun to interact with and honestly really cool to think about how the technology worked. I was having a hard time thinking of how it could be used inside of a classroom, but it was a really awesome piece of technology and I think the creators had an incredible idea in making it. Overall, it was such an eye-opening experience to what us teachers of the future will hopefully have access to in our classrooms in order to provide better education and stimulating experiences to get students excited about school.

Here are some of the pictures I took during the field trip:

Blog Post #6

I decided to look at the school website and page for a teacher I interned for last semester. She teaches 6th grade advanced math at Elizabeth Cobb Middle School. One of the pieces of information I see displayed is a link to teacher info, including a photo of the teacher, a short description about her, and how to get in contact with her through email or phone. The next piece of information displayed are textbook and resource links that the students can go to if they need extra help with a concept they're learning in class or tips on organization skills to become a more prepared student. The website also displays a link to handouts and documents, which contains all of the materials, such as worksheets or vocabulary, that they are given in class, incase the student loses the copy they are given. After that, a link to the class calendar, which shows their agenda for the week incase a student misses class or a parent wants to keep up with their children's assignments. There is also a parent portal which I assume gives more information to parents about their student's and their grades/assignments, but I was unable to see specific info since I didn't have a login. The last piece of information displayed is a link to class notes, where the teacher uploads all of the notes taken each day for whatever topic they are covering in class.

Since I will hopefully be teaching high school mathematics, I initially had a hard time thinking of how I could use technology in the classroom, other than the obvious examples like using a projector to display notes while I'm teaching and using Word to create quizzes and tests. However, after skimming over the chapter again and listening to the podcast, I realized there are many other types of technology that could benefit my classroom. I could use Diigo to bookmark and import resources like practice sheets and activities relevant to the material I'm teaching, so I don't have to go searching for them at a later time. I could also annotate the document as I am reading through it to mark if I want to change a specific problem or instruction to cater more towards the level my students are at. Creating a group within the service with other math teachers at the school would also be extremely beneficial, giving us the ability to share annotated documents and activities with one another that we believed could be helpful. Another form of technology I could totally see myself using in my classroom is Google Calendar. This would give me the ability to easily upload information to a weekly/monthly about what we completed that day for the parents and students to see, incase a student needs to catch up on assignments or if a parent wants to make sure their student is completing what they need to inside and outside of class. A third form of technology that I could see myself using in the classroom is educational apps that could help students participate in lessons easier, like using the apple numbers app to create charts and display data when doing lessons that involve material that requires graphing or analyzing statistical information.

After going to the Tech Sandbox, I am even more solidified in the fact I could use a Smart Board in my future classroom. I actually used one in the classroom of the teacher who's website I just looked at. It was so helpful in displaying problems and having students working them out with the special pen instead of having to write and erase problems and work off of a whiteboard, since we could go back to previous slides if a student had a question because the Smart Board would keep all of the information written on that document. I was also able to display a gridded graph on the board so we could plot points and form lines accurately together, instead of creating a non-proportional graph and plotting points inaccurately on a regular white board. The Tech Sandbox showed me that I could also display interactive 3-D models for students to move around and get a better understanding of the object. This could be used greatly when learning about 3-D objects! Overall I think it's a great form of technology that could greatly influence a classroom and I'm jealous I never got to work with one as a student.

Blog Post #5

Some Web 2.0 tools that I think are extremely beneficial to teachers and the classroom are YouTube and blogs. Like it mentioned in the podcast, YouTube is a great way to "Locate and share relevant videos with their students during lessons." This can give the teacher the ability to present information in a more exciting and stimulating way to his/her students, create playlists for assignments or extra helpful resources, and also watch videos of other lessons/classroom interactions by teachers to get a view on how he/she can take on the lesson in their classroom. Also mentioned in the podcast, blogs can be used as a "student publishing platform" that enables the teacher to keep track of student progress on assignments and understanding of concepts in their writing, as well as give the students a way to share their academic thoughts with their "audience" on the internet. This also helps students grow in their ability to present information in an efficient way and defend that information with evidence and reasoning. Some web 2.0 tools I was able to think of that would not be beneficial to teachers and the classroom are Facebook and Instagram. Facebook is a social networking tool that is mostly for friends and family relationships, not educational purposes. Plus, teachers aren't even allowed to be friends with students on Facebook until after they graduate, making it impossible for it to be a platform to be used in the classroom anyway. Instagram is also a social networking tool that is largely used for friends and family, with in my opinion, no clear educational opportunities at all. This would also make it inappropriate to be used as an informational platform for students.

One of the web 2.0 tools listed that I found interesting was Scribd. It is an online audiobook library with endless options of books and documents. I see this tool as a great way for students that have reading disabilities or trouble reading at a timely pace to read required books along with the audio to help keep up with the required reading. This could be used by students in elementary school all the way up to high school, and maybe even college. You can start with a free month trial, which is great if a student or teacher is unsure if the program is right for them, and can give it a shot without losing any money. Here's a link to the web tool: https://www.scribd.com/

I believe the the technology advancement that holds the biggest promise for education is gamification. It definitely isn't a new tool to teachers, but I believe its growth over the years, as well as future its potential, makes it an awesome tool for teachers to use inside and outside of their classrooms.  Gamification, as the book states, "adds game elements to instructional content to increase motivation and interactivity, encourage creativity, and deepen understanding of content. If you ask me, that encompasses everything that a teacher, parent, and school board as well want for their students. Throughout my schooling, especially elementary school, educational games were a huge staple in the classroom. Online programs that had games in order to prepare us students for the FCAT, FAIR, and even general topics gone over in the classroom were apart of my education for a number of years. For my younger sister, Leapfrog played a HUGE role in her learning how to read and work with word pronunciation and sentence structures. Nowadays, I see commercials for online programs like ABC Mouse, that is made up of educational games to get younger kids to work on topics ranging from spelling and grammar all the way to basic mathematics. Through analyzing all of these different forms of gamification, I can confidently say that it will continue to positively impact students throughout schooling, and continue to grow into even more of an incredibly useful classroom tool.

Blog Post #4

So far, using twitter has been really beneficial to me in keeping track of assignments, following what other students in the class are up to, and seeing important updates in the world of education! For example, the other day I saw a tweet about how the Board of Education was looking into stopping the effect of ACT/SAT scores on teachers' salaries. That's so awesome! I don't think I would've heard about that news until it (hopefully) happens on the news if I hadn't been following their twitter account. I also love being able to get quick answers about homework and assignments when I need them, especially if I'm on a time crunch. I believe twitter is a great way to connect to educational content and always be in the know when it comes to your profession and the news surrounding it, especially when exciting news like I said above is occurring! Knowing what's going on in your field outside of the classroom is just as important as knowing what's going on inside of it. Being informed and prepared to deal with change like new state standards or standardized tests can put you ahead of the game and also make you a more well-rounded teacher.

The digital divide effects these specific students because not all of them will have the technological knowledge to be able to use active learning software in the classroom, or be able to access it at home when trying to complete assignments. If a student doesn't know how to use, or doesn't have access to productive presentation software like Microsoft Powerpoint, creating informative presentations that keep the attention of the other students can be hard. This also applies to publishing software like Microsoft Publisher. Being able to make visually appealing projects instead of gluing paper and printed pictures to a poster board can be a great tool for students. Graphics software can immensely help student understanding of a topic, especially in math and science. Being able to see graphic representations through illustration programs and 3-D animations can go a long way in the classroom. My Calc 3 teacher uses an online program that graphs out 3-D models of parabolas and hyperbolas in order to help us draw them in our assignments, as well as have a deeper understanding of what's going on in the material. Without this software, there would be no way for me to accurately understand and draw what these problems look like. This goes the same for any material that needs graphic representation in a classroom in order to have full understanding of it. Without access to, or the knowledge of how to use imaging software like Photoshop or other photo-manipulative tools, students' ability to manipulate photos and content to the way they want it for presentations and projects is pretty stunted. Also, in my experience, not having the ability to convert hard-copy pages into texted is a huge disadvantage. Whenever I receive material that isn't text-compatible, I convert it immediately so I am able to search and highlight the information I need within the document, rather than have to read concepts I don't need and repeatedly search through text if I lose track of an important point. Reference software and Academic Databases, in my opinion, is one of the most important applications a student could have access to. Being able to access online references like Encyclopedia Britannica or their school database also helps immensely in gathering information for a project or essay. Also, Without computer access, going to the library to search for information can take a great deal of time, and may lead to less impressive results using limited books than if the student were able to find all the information they need online. When considering academic software, there are also tons of beneficial tutorials and drill-and-practice software for tests when a student needs help studying, and without access to a computer, the student is not only limited in the help they need in that moment, but also impedes their full understanding of important information over time. Academic games can also help a student practice and understand concepts outside of the classroom. I know in elementary school, my english teacher had us do TONS of games at home to keep us practicing spelling and grammar concepts we were learning in the classroom. Without this software at home, I could see students having a harder time/taking a longer time to get these important concepts to clique and be able to apply them in their writing. Simulations is similar to graphic software in the way that it gives students a visual to connect what their learning to, as well as give limited real-world application while still inside of a classroom. Problem solving software gives students the ability to collaborate with each other and use critical thinking skills while forming and testing a hypothesis or using multi-step strategies to solve math problems. Concept mapping tools can also be a great way to get students to think outside of the box and make connections to important sub-topics within the concept they are learning. When getting into broader, more in-depth concepts, giving students the access to online tools that help them create these maps are way more time efficient, as well as organized in showing ideas, than if they were to write and draw everything on a sheet of paper. Authorizing software like Quizlet can be a great way for teachers to create informative material like flashcards for their students to see online at home. However, this is no help to students if they don't have access to a computer outside of the school. Lastly, having access to content-specific software, like Illuminations, which is used to support instruction of abstract mathematical concepts, is a sure way to get students to expand their knowledge and deeper their understanding of material gone over in the classroom. Without it, students would not be able to take that "extra-step" outside of hearing lectures and completing practice problems in class.

When evaluating websites, you need to make sure it is coming from an established source. In order to determine the information as a credible source, the website needs to have credible credentials of an author and/or publisher. It is also important to note whether a website puts out biased information or not. For example, it is clear that Fox News is a hugely republican news outlet/website. Therefore, it is clear we cannot use it as a source when finding unbiased information about politics. Another important thing to look for in a website is if the content is accurate, including good grammar and spelling indicating that the author took time inputting/researching the information, as well as if the content is to the appropriate level of information you are looking for. Lastly, an important indicator of a good website is if it's visually appealing as well as functional. If it looks like a high schooler made it, and also runs like it, it probably isn't a site you want to be sourcing for a paper or project. When I look for a good website, I look for a combination of all of these aspects. It is important to have each and every one in order to determine it as a credible source and make sure your project is backed up with accurate information. If not, the argument and/or point you are trying to make using that source is completely flawed.

Blog Post #3

I definitely feel most prepared to teach the multimedia standards that include charts, graphs, video/audio, and interactive elements, as well as the use of digital media, which includes using those previous aspects to enhance the classroom learning environment. I believe I am comfortable enough, and have enough knowledge about technology to efficiently integrate these standards in my classroom and give my students information in way that is efficient as well as informative. Some standards I don't feel as confident about are the informational text standard, which includes analyzing how sentences and paragraphs relate to the entirety of the text they reside in, as well as the multiple source standard that includes being able to gather multiple relevant sources and assess their credibility. I tend to have a hard time seeing the big picture of things when reading large portions of text, and always get caught up on the small details that don't matter much in forming an overall understanding of the passage. I also have a hard time searching for multiple credible sources that really work towards supporting information I am presenting, since I've grown up with the thought that all the information I need is in the first page of a google search. These two standards are immensely important in a classroom, especially when getting into higher grades. I believe throughout my college attendance so far, I've grown in my capabilities when dealing with these standards, but I do have a lot of work and practice to go in order to efficiently practice them in my classroom and teach my students these skills that they'll need in their schooling, as well as outside of it.

One of the pieces of technology I would like to include in my classroom is a discussion board or blog, in order to promote discussion and response outside of the classroom. Being able to read a piece of text, gather information, and respond to that information is a great way to solidify understanding of material in students, as well as promote the formation of ideas and thoughts about a piece of writing. Students can then go read their peers' posts and see different points of view about the same text they all read, and comment to give feedback and expand upon ideas that other students may have brought up. Another piece of technology I would like to include in my classroom is Academic Portals, or educational social media sites that enable students to log in and have all of the classroom materials at their fingertips. In high school, many of my teachers used a site/app called schoology. This social media site allowed my teachers to create discussion boards, post lectures and assignments, conduct quizzes and tests, and link outside resources like videos or articles that they believed would be helpful to us students. A lot like Blackboard! I believe these technologies are hugely helpful in any classroom, especially in situations where a student is out sick or has a hard time keeping track of assignments. They can just log on, see what they missed/need to do, and has all of the materials they need at their leisure.

I believe it is important to teach every student to participate in the appropriate use of technology and positively contribute to wide array of information that the internet holds. In order to do this, we as teachers must teach them certain skills, like how to identify inappropriate behaviors of others on the internet and report them, recognize intellectual property and respect the rules for its use, and search for information by forming appropriate questions, applying critical thinking skills, and collaborating with others. There are multiple other concepts that should also be addressed in the classroom, but I believe these three concepts are of the most importance in creating technologically responsible students. They teach students how to handle controversial situations and possibly cyberbullying, be able to appropriately use information they find on the internet, and use that information to expand upon their own ideas.

After completing my newsletter, I'm pretty proud of it! I really like the minimalistic layout and simple color scheme I decided to go with. I do think I could have been a bit more creative, but I felt a bit constricted with the requirements we were supposed to fulfill. While I was creating it, I discovered how to add a page border, modify the footer to create the permission slip, and efficiently use the two-column layout. I was having a hard time with that in class. Now knowing how to do these things in word, in the future I will be able to use them every time I need to make a document for the class, other teachers, and parents as well.

Blog Post #2

As a student, I've pretty much used MS Word throughout my entire schooling, starting from about 4th grade up until this year as a sophomore in college. Word was as essential in creating projects and essays back in elementary school as it is now being at a major university. I definitely didn't do as intense writing in elementary school compared to middle school, and high school compared to college, but gradually learning the basics of the program and how/when it is best to use it definitely had a positive impact on me as a student. Now, having been put in a classroom to teach, I find myself using Word to do a lot of things that my own teachers did back in my K-12 schooling, like create test/quizzes, write notes, create lesson plans, and present general information to the students.

Throughout each year of my schooling, at least one teacher of mine goes over what copyright means and the rules of fair use of materials. Both copyright and fair use have always been an important issue stressed upon in each school I've attended. They stressed the seriousness of using someone else's material in projects, and to make sure it was available to be used publicly. As a teacher, I would do the same as my teachers before me, showing students the importance of creating individual work, and when having to use someone else's material, be sure to give credit where it's due. I would also apply this same principle to my own work when creating lesson plans and tests, as well as giving credit to creators of material when finding activities or materials that I see as beneficial to the lesson, whether they be from online, a book of lesson plans/activities, or from a fellow teacher.

I never thought of Twitter as a professional networking app, but after monday's class I see that it is a great way to connect to companies and other educational services to not only share information, but receive it as well. Having the ability to tweet out to well-established companies about educational issues at hand, or share a solid opinion about whatever is being shared, is a great ability to have. It expands your connection to the world of education outside of your classroom and school, and puts you in a place where information would have been hard to access or hear about in a timely manner outside of social media. Inside the classroom, it gives me the ability to connect to the other students in my class to discuss topics we are learning, ask questions, and share helpful information with each other, which I think is a great thing to have in any classroom.

Blog Post #1

I believe computers play a hugely important role in a classroom. Not only do they make the teacher's job easier, but also the students'. Computers can make tasks like taking attendance, reporting grades, and researching a topic very easy for the teacher, and allows them to allot more time for actually teaching their daily lesson. The stresses of lesson preparation are also largely cut down by having online resources and programs available at the teacher's fingertips. In the case of students, computers can help satisfy specific student needs in the classroom and also promote engagement in the classroom activity or lesson. Certain apps or social networks like blogs or podcasts can be used as learning tools, while others like Microsoft's Photo Story or Museum Box can help with creating attention-grabbing presentations to share with the classroom. When it comes to concerns about technology in the classroom, like how a school would finance technology for each student in each classroom, or how to manage time and experiences with technology in the classroom in an efficient way, I do understand where hardships can arise. Money is tight in the education system, and a lot of the times school boards have a strict hold on how classrooms are run in their district's schools. I believe that in order to boost the efficiency of classrooms in the US, teachers, higher-ups, and also parents need to somehow reach an agreement on the benefits of technology in the classroom in order to give students the education they deserve in this day and age.

I do believe that ISTE Standards are created with the best intentions with student's and teacher's in mind. They provide detailed outlines of what important skills teachers should present and teach to their students in order to create well-rounded, technologically efficient students in the classroom. One standard I see as positive is, "Facilitate and Inspire Student Creativity" to "Facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments." Allowing students to be innovative in their thinking and problem solving, and connecting lessons to real-world issues is hugely important in creating a student that is not only attentive to the world and its problems around them, but also how to go about solving those problems in an efficient way. However, I do believe that sometimes these standards can make teacher's feel like they are trapped in a box, or not allowed to go about things a different, possibly more efficient or creative way in order to instruct their students to their best ability. I've already somewhat felt this pressure of meeting certain standards in a lesson when teaching middle schoolers last semester, and the constant thought of having to meet those specific standards before the lesson was over intimidated me, and caused me to sometimes lose the flow of my lesson. An example of this could be the standard, "Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments." A standard like this does have some helpful application, but requiring teachers to "customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles," can easily become overwhelming for the teacher, and also cause problems having to integrate multiple ways of completing activities into a lesson plan. Even though it is important to address that every student has a different way of learning in a classroom, asking teachers to tailer their lessons to dozens of learning styles in their classroom is a lot.

I do believe that digital native is an appropriate term for todays youth. Those of us who are considered digital natives all grew up in the time of technology, most not being able to remember a time where technology didn't have a constant presence in everyday life. I do believe that there can be a large separation in how digital natives and digital immigrants use technology, depending on how comfortably they use in the workplace or regular activities. Most teachers who grew up and went through all of their schooling without technology have a hard time adapting to more advanced used of technology in the classroom other than projectors or computers, like using apps to take polls about history questions or programs that create models in mathematics. I think having teachers like this all throughout my schooling has really impacted my viewpoint on teaching and what a classroom should be like. In my head, I am ingrained with the thoughts that problems should be worked out on the board, tests should be taken with pencil and paper, and projects should have strict guidelines. But, growing up in the age of technology, I know that things could be done so much more efficiently and more beneficial to the student, like using a smart-board to allow students to draw on computer generated graphs or tables for more accuracy and understanding, or allowing students to submit anonymous polls about a question in order to promote student participation and give the teacher a way of seeing where their students stand with certain information in a lesson, and giving students more freedom to be creative when doing projects in order to increase excitement about certain topics. Even though the old way of doing things in the classroom could come across as easier, it is definitely not a more efficient way to promote learning and discussion in a classroom.

Blog Post #0

I've had a lot of experience using technology in my everyday life over the years. Both of my parents are extremely tech savvy, so a lot of their skills were passed down to me as I was growing up. The pinnacle moment of my technology knowledge happened in middle school, when all of my projects or assignments now had to be typed, formatted, and full of diagrams and pictures. Being comfortable with using a computer really helped me excel in my classes as my creative assignments went. I definitely know how to efficiently use Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, but I know little to nothing about using Excel. I learned how to use Word and Powerpoint throughout my schooling, but was never instructed how to make things in excel or what it's purpose is for other than to make spreadsheets.

In this class, I hope to learn a lot of different ways to include technology in the classroom, because it is definitely growing to have a more prominent place in the classroom. I believe technology can bring a lot of opportunities into a classroom that a classic textbook otherwise wouldn't, and that it gives students the opportunity to not only expand their knowledge with outside activities, but also grow their technological abilities as well. I also hope to learn about some efficient ways to manage technology in the classroom and when it is best appropriate to use in a lesson, since there is generally a high likability of students trying to mess around or get distracted by having a device in their hands. However, I believe if you learn to understand when and when not to use technology in the classroom, as well as how to manage your students with it, technology can be an influentially positive classroom tool.

Looking at my Learning Styles Results, I see that I gravitate more towards being a reflective learner, which I completely agree with. I find it that in a lot of cases I need a good amount of time to think about new ideas and concepts in the classroom in order to grasp main ideas, and when I don't have that time to reflect, I find myself worrying and struggling to understand concepts, both in the classroom and on my own time. I also see that I am more of a sensor learner, which I also agree with. I find myself to be a very practical person in both my life and in schooling, and really identify with the point that sensors like "solving problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises," with also being a math major and all. My last two categories I see to be more balanced, leaning a bit more to the visual and sequential side of things, relating to small parts of each learning style. I do have a hard time in lecture classes that do not have visual representations of the concepts they are talking about, but I can accommodate that by taking down specific points the professor is saying and putting the parts together myself. I also find a lot of comfort with courses that follow the order of the book and talk about topics/events in a sequential way.