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.