Blog Journal 7

    School pages and teacher websites are another element of educational technology that can really enhance the quality of learning and assistance within schools. In my own education, each of my schools had their own specifically designed website that catered to their students, staff and parents. These websites are a great resource for information and tools. Many of these websites are protected by login systems that allows parents, staff and students to access the website but no one without a login.This ensures that the site remains safe for students to use and prevents confidential/personal information from being open to the public's eyes. I went back to the past for this blog! I visited the school website for my old Elementary School, Stearley Heights Elementary School located in Okinawa, Japan that I went to for the 4th and 5th grade. The website for this school is averagely helpful for educational technology. Most websites for schools will be limited because they have a login system that prevents information from being shared without access. I did not visit my past teachers from 4th and 5th grade because they no longer work there. However, I did look at other teacher's sites and they all offered information and resources helpful to both the student and the parent. https://sites.google.com/student.dodea.edu/stearleyheightses/student-zone/grades-k-2?authuser=0

    As a teacher, I understand how crucial technology will be in my career. Technology plays a key role in how we teach the newer generations of children. Not only are these kids exposed to more technology than we were as kids and our parents and teachers were in school, technology is growing as they are. Therefore, as their teachers, we must continue to learn the newest technology in order to best assist and teach. Each school has it required resources that teachers must make use of. however, personally I can see myself using either Google Classroom and/or Canvas. Both tools are very helpful and easy to navigate as a student so I think it would be useful to use as a teacher. When you are a teacher, you must think as a student and what resource would best serve their learning environment. Canvas is a great resource to post calendars and online assignments to keep students on track. While the Google tools such as Docs, Sheets and PowerPoint are all very useful. I would use Google Docs to plan out my lessons and create assignments and lessons plans. While I could use Sheets to track grades, calendars, planning for ahead, etc. Google PowerPoint could be used to create PowerPoint's to display to the class that help guide the instruction and go along with the lesson plan to keep us on schedule. 

    PBWorks is a wiki platform similar to the very popular wiki platform, Wikipedia. Wikis are publications that are edited and published collaboratively, meaning people can work together jointly to add information. Wikis aren't always the best resources because there can be a lack of credibility and accuracy from the people editing the source document. PBWorks was created for education purposes in mind, such as creating collaborative websites for teachers and students to use. After briefly using PBWorks, I noticed small negatives.The platform itself is outdated and hard to navigate. It's customization is limited. I could use the platform to create my own classroom website that students could interact and add to, like a joint online classroom space.

Blog Journal 6

    Last class, I had my first experience exploring the resource, Diigo. Diigo is a collaborative space to share bookmarks of current resources with your community. A community can be any group of people collaborating for one effort, such as a class, coworkers, fellow researchers, etc. Diigo makes sharing information and resources simplistic and efficient. I really enjoyed the ease of the platform, it was easy to navigate both sharing and looking through resources. I can see myself using Diigo in the future for other researching tasks. Collaborating on research is really helpful because everyone brings their own perspective on life that can be eye opening when working together. 

    I never imagined that I would love blogging. I have always favored English and History over Science and Math. However, I would not call myself a good writer nor a creative writer. I have always wanted to strengthen and challenge my writing skills because I not only really enjoy writing but I find that writing plays a key role in life. Being able to communicate and articulate your feelings through words is a skill that is crucial in life. As students we begin our journey as writers from the minute we begin school. Teachers have us writing out our alphabet over and over until it becomes memory. My goal from blogging was to focus on being honest about what I was learning and experiencing and not writing what I knew my teachers wanted to read. Blogging is a more personal space that gives writers an opportunity to be themselves. I hope that one day, I can make another blog about being a teacher. I have learned from blogging that creating a community is really important for our schools and careers. Communities allow for engagement, interaction and sharing advice that can really encourage and support someone. I love being able to read my classmates blogs to see what they found helpful or difficult.

    Out of all of the Web 2.0 tools the one that I was always interested in was YouTube. Growing up we used YouTube for so much! We watched YouTube videos for fun, we watched instructional videos in class. I still use YouTube at least once a week for either, entertainment, instruction or educational purposes. For teaching, I think that showing YouTube videos can be a great way to educate and entertain students at the same time. However, it should be stated that YouTube is not a replacement for instruction or teachers, YouTube is merely an added resource to the classroom. I found that during the Covid-19 pandemic when schools were completely virtual, YouTube was a great source for my own learning. The beginning of the pandemic occurred when I was a junior in high school, taking 3 AP courses, AP US History, AP English Language and AP Psychology. I needed to be prepared for these upcoming AP tests with little daily instruction from my teachers. Therefore, I turned to YouTube to add another resource that would strengthen my learning and skills that I needed for the tests. As a future teacher, I think that YouTube will continue to be a helpful resource that students respond well to. YouTube is super accessible because it can be watched on any kind of device for completely free. I think it would be even helpful if as a teacher I uploaded my own videos to instruct students and encourage future and/or current educators.

Blog Journal 5

    Twitter is a great social media site for all kinds of communities to interact and share information among one another. Using twitter, you can find your interests and explore posts and creators that share similar interests, values, career fields, passions, etc. In my past experience with social media, I never used twitter for my personal social media. I always felt like in the past, I had trouble navigating and keeping up to date on the never ending posts. However, I realize now after using Twitter as a resource for EME, that it can be a great source for helpful tips, tricks and quick information. I followed my classmates, instructor, the FSU College of Education as well as a few other teacher social media creators. For my future career, it will be beneficial to follow the social media pages of my school district and community of teachers to stay updated. Following other teachers is a great way to be inspired, encouraged and supported in a demanding field. 

    The digital divide is a huge accessibility problem that needs to be addressed more. In my own personal experience, I saw how the lack of access to the internet and technology can put students a great disadvantage to their education and opportunities in the future. During the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, my high school had to face the problem of the digital divide. During the shutdowns of the schools across all of the United States and the world, schools had to figure out how to continue education without falling behind. The greatest resource during a world wide school shutdown was technology. Schools could live stream/zoom class meetings and use online resources and school websites to assign, track and grade student work and progress. However, this structure of school was not ready to implement in all areas of the world, even in the U.S. In my own school district, students did not have home access to stable internet or devices to complete school on the daily. Libraries and coffee shops which are known for having free WiFi for customers to use was no longer an option for students during the pandemic. Therefore, my school attempted to decrease the digital divide my providing school laptops to students in need and working with the local internet provider to pay for students home WiFi during the pandemic school shutdown. I myself, benefited from the school's support. My family was gifted free WiFi during this time because of our lower income. This made doing school and work from home not a stressful home environment or a burden on our source of income. The digital divide is much more common than you would think in our world of expanding technology. As a future teacher, it's important to understand the digital divide and the disadvantage many students face at home. Therefore, it is crucial that teachers implement and help their students gain experience and knowledge of technology while at school. Schools can offer so much access to technology that students do not have at home. 

    Technology is one of the greatest tools for classrooms. Technology opens up methods and resources of learning that would be limited without the use of technology. In my experience being a student, I have had to navigate and learn how to use several different academic software. My first high school primarily used Google software including Google Classroom, Docs, Drive, etc. While the other high school I attended used a software called Blackboard alongside Microsoft to aid in our learning.However, now at FSU, our primary academic software is Canvas. I preferred the functions and resources of Canvas opposed to other software I've used in the past. It is good to be well acquainted with several software so that as a student you can be best prepared for what it required of you and so that you can expand your technology skills and knowledge. As a future teacher, I can see myself implementing online resources such as Google classroom or Microsoft Office 365, both resources are very similar in the functions that they offer for student's use. These software can help students grasp technology and explore its use for academics.

Blog Journal 4

    From the ELA Technology Standards, I chose to review the 3rd grade standards for technology. As stated in previous blog posts, my goal is to teach 3rd grade so hopefully I feel confident in my abilities teaching the expected third grade curriculum and standards for technology. I felt that the most important standard that stuck out to me was the standard for search tools. The standard states that 3rd graders should be taught and able to demonstrate this skill through the use of search engines, hyperlinks, sidebars, key word searching, etc. I feel very confident in my skill in assisting my students with this standard. Searching for information is one of the biggest portions of my own personal use of the internet, with internet searching so much information is available to us that would not be as accessible. By teaching students how to properly, effectively and safely search on the internet, they can become experienced digital natives!

    On the CPALMS website, there is a variety of tools and resources available for teachers to aid student development and learning. I chose to explore the tools offered for third grade students. On the third grade English Language Arts section there is a resource called Verb Mania! Verb Mania is an interactive walk-through that guides students through English grammar and language skills! The program is a good resource for students because it takes a creative and fun approach to implementing learning. Students need real world connections and interactions to make learning valuable. Another great aspect of the program is that it is technology based, therefore it covers multiple targets of learning both technology and English skills. I also appreciate that the program is not geared for teachers but for the students themselves, Verb Mania would be a great tool to have students practice either individually or in small groups to strengthen their skills and give them more experience using technology in a school environment. In my classroom, I would love to set up stations where students can rotate through different activities, one of the them being Verb Mania. 

    We as digital natives do more internet searching each day than we realize. "Oh what's the name of that celebrity? Oh what does this mean? Oh where is that restaurant located?" We rely on search engines for much of our information. Because of this, we must be sure that we are being safe and effective searchers. The internet is full of lies and deceptions, therefore we must be able to know how and where to find information. It's crucial for teachers to present accurate and honest information to students. Teachers are often students first source of knowledge and information. Therefore, it is crucial that teachers are diligent searchers and that they frequently check their sources and information for accuracy. One of the tools that was presented this week was the minus tool for searching. You can eliminate searches by add - "whatever you don't want to see". This tool can help lower the amount of results that come up as well as eliminate results that are counterproductive to your search.