blog 10

The surveys through Qualtrics are one of my favorite things we've learned to do so far. I love how applicable that skill is to all professions and activities. I will use surveys in my classroom in the future as a way to poll my students. This will allow me to see how well my students feel they grasp a concept before moving on, and it will allow me to get feedback from my students on how they feel I am doing throughout the year when it comes to meeting their needs both academically and creatively. I hope that in the future being able to get feedback from my students will give me the opportunity to grow even more as a teacher. I would like to teach elementary English., and I am unsure of the grade level yet, but I would tailor my surveys to be easily done by whichever grade I end up teaching. I could even get ratings on how much my English students enjoy the books they are reading.

My favorite topic that we did was FlipGrid. I thought it was fun getting to watch the facial expressions and hear the voice fluctuations of my classmates when watching them discuss a flipped classroom. I feel like it allowed us to convey more emotion than just a text blog allows us to. It also allowed us to learn a new form of technology while discussing a topic, and I feel that this is very cool because that blog topic acted as a dual learning method. I also just enjoyed hearing people talk about a flipped classroom in general because it is such a hot topic these days, and everyone had similar views but different reasons on why they did or did not like a flipped classroom.

I really want to learn how to use photoshop next. I feel that it is a skill that can be applied across so many fields both personal and professional. I can achieve this by taking a class, watching online tutorials, or exploring the technology myself. I will definitely look further into how I can learn to use photoshop, and I will explore the ways I can apply it to the field of teaching. 

blog post 9

https://www.oercommons.org This is a link to a website of Open Education Resources. This site allows you to find educational resources that are open for public use to help you improve your curriculum. And, this site is fitting for OER because an OER is simply a resource that helps to improve teaching skills, curriculum, or professional development and is open for public use. I really like how this site allowed you to search for resources specifically related to your subject and grade as well as whether or not this material needs to fall under Common Core or state specific standards.

I learned a lot of new skills when doing the PowerPoint assignments. I liked the second assignment more than the first one. It was more fun and allowed me to be more creative with it rather than just making a lesson. I learned how to voice record on PowerPoint as well as how to disable linear navigation. I thought this was cool since I had never done it before. I think if I had to improve anything, it would be having more of a color scheme set or a colored background. Overall, I am very happy with how my projects turned out.

blog post 8

Welcome back to my blog. Spring break was a nice time to relax, but now we are back and in full swing with school. Today, I wanted to reflect some on my experience with Diigo. I really enjoyed being to annotate articles online and have all my highlighted portions or notes saved in one location. I think this could be very. useful later on for writing research papers. I will definitely be showing it to my students. It can also be useful for sharing that information with a group as well as having group discussions on one specific topic. Honestly, the list of potential uses goes on forever, so I recommend checking it out.

Bloom's Taxonomy is a model looking at a breakdown of the different parts of learning. The application of PowerPoint can be used at each level of these in order to reinforce it. For example, if I were trying to teach my students multiplication, I could have my students use PowerPoint to create their own presentations with problems they have come up with on their own. This would reinforce the Create part of the Taxonomy. To reinforce the level of Evaluate, I could use PowerPoint to present both incorrectly and correctly worked out multiplication. I then would have my students Evaluate the problems by having them explain why they are correctly and incorrectly worked out. As part of the Analyze step, I would have my students compare and contrast multiplication and division problems using the SmartArt create portion of PowerPoint where I would create a ven diagram for them to use. For the apply step, I would use PowerPoint to present problems for them to solve by applying their knowledge. For the Understand part, I would assign my students a project where they would use PowerPoint to teach the class how to do multiplication. And finally for the Remember step, I would use PowerPoint to repeat the important information slide after slide to increase their learning.

click here for website link

Teachers are the driving force of the innovation of technology in the field of education. This is because they are the ones who directly use this technology. I found the above website and included a screenshot as well as a link to it. This website talks about the different trends in educational technology which would make it a good one to check out in the future in order to see where the future of technology in the field of education is going. It is important to have a good understanding of this in order to keep up with and continue to promote the advancement in this field. 

blog post 7

We've been using Twitter in class to build our PLNs. I did not have a Twitter before this class, so I have had to adjust to using it. I've learned Twitter has a lot more functions than just looking at GIFs or sharing random thoughts of the day. I have enjoyed seeing how people have discussions relating to professional development and their opinions on teaching topics. I think the access it provides to so many different individuals as well as news is super beneficial to staying up to date on what is going on not only in your professional field but also in the world. I think my biggest issue that I've had with Twitter is that I struggle to remember to Tweet on my own; I have to set an alert to remind me since I was not accustomed to regularly using this app prior to this class.

The Web Design assignment has been my favorite one so far in this class. I really enjoyed getting to be creative while learning a tool that will help me in the future. I now know how to embed a Google Calendar into a webpage which will help me do so in the future on my webpage as a teacher. I think I could improve my site next time by adding more colors and making it more fun for young students to be on. Overall, I am very satisfied with how my site turned out because it was my first time ever making a webpage, and I am very proud of how it turned out. I have included a link to it in this post as well as a screenshot of it for y'all to be able to check out what I did. https://eme2040assignment3.weebly.com

Assistive and adaptive technologies are used in the classroom in order to help facilitate those students who have learning disabilities as well as other disabilities. I actually have a distant cousin who lives in California who has Autism. The school he was at worked with my aunt in order to maximize his learning potential. By using assistive technology, he was able to be successfully transitioned from an individual classroom into mainstream learning and still experience academic success. They utilize apps with puzzles to help hold his attention span since he is very interested in problem solving. After hearing about his experience in the classroom, I think my biggest challenge will be finding the technology that helps my students the most. It is a trial and error process to discover how students learn best, and I do not want my students academic success to suffer or be slowed during the process of finding the best assistive technology. I think it is so amazing how technology can be used to facilitate the learning of those with learning disabilities.

ILP Design

https://voicethread.com/share/12395460/

In this portion of the project, I actually used an online form of technology that we have not used in class to design a class presentation. I used Prezi to make a presentation as if I were a 3rd grade reading teacher. I really enjoyed the tool, and I made a PowerPoint to talk about my experiences and used VoiceThread in order to further explain the things I mentioned in the PowerPoint. I included a link to my Prezi which you can find in my presentation that is linked above, and I have also included a link to my Prezi below in case you want to view it separately.

https://prezi.com/view/IS3Wl08S4P100btrrNWh/

ILP #1 Participation

https://voicethread.com/share/12219198/

For this project, I interviewed a teacher about his technology use in the classroom. I took notes on this interview to reference when making my PowerPoint presentation. The PowerPoint is a general outline, and I used VoiceThread in order to elaborate further on what I learned.

blog 6

https://www.leonschools.net//site/Default.aspx?PageID=9930

A lot of schools require teachers to maintain their own website pages. A lot of the teachers at this school has the same page set up, and others had nothing but contact information on their pages. I saw a description of the teacher's educational background as well as a short biography. She also had links for the students to turn in their assignments as well as a link to an online textbook. I also saw two outside readings for the students about fiction and nonfiction.

I envision myself using some technology in the future. I have volunteered a lot in Title 1 schools, so I know that lots of advanced technology is limited. I would like to use Lyrics to Learn which is a program I have seen done on laptops in my volunteering. The students work on reading skills through fun songs. I also would like to use Kahoot to test the skills of my students in a fun way. I see myself using a class website as well. Ideally I would have a document camera in my classroom, but I know that is unlikely since the schools I have been in do not have them in their classrooms.

I really enjoyed our trip to Tech Sandbox this week. I loved drawing with the 3D pens; it was really relaxing. I found the robotics section to be really interesting since I never knew that programming in Leon County was considered a second language. The tablets were also very interesting with how you could record the class to be able to watch and reflect on it later on. I hope that I can implement the pens in my class in the future because they were my favorite part.

Blog 5

My initial experience using Diigo has been good so far. I have liked being able to annotate websites. I think this will be super helpful when writing research papers in the future. The only thing I do not like about Diigo is that you have to be on Google Chrome to use it, and I prefer using Safari on my Mac instead.

I've had a really good experience with blogging so far. I think it is really fun to be able to write in this format rather than in papers. I definitely want to try and use blogging in the future in my classroom to help students peer review each others' papers. The only thing I don't enjoy about blogging is that some of the topics are hard to elaborate on since I don't have much to say about my opinions on the technology we use in class. This is because I am just learning how to use them, and since I am not a teacher yet, I'm unsure how applicable they will be in my classroom since I do not know the technology the school and my students will have available to them.

I might use Cool Math Games in my classroom. Since I want to teach elementary school, I will need to be able to academically engage my students in all subjects. I think Cool Math Games would allow my students to learn in a fun way. It also would allow the students to review skills they aren't as strong in or move ahead to begin learning new skills. https://www.coolmathgames.com

blog post 4

https://voicethread.com/share/12048522/

My Classroom Newsletter Assignment

Blog Post 3

I feel very prepared with some forms of technology, but I do not feel prepared to use other forms in the classroom. I feel prepared to use Microsoft Word since we have covered how to use those skills in class. I also feel confident with Kahoot since I have used that form of technology a lot in the past. I do not feel as prepared with Microsoft PowerPoint since I do not usually use Windows applications, and I am looking forward to learning how to use it more in EME2040. I have become more comfortable using Twitter since being in this class, but I feel that I still have room to grow with my skills in it.

One of the resources on CPALMS Educator Toolkit that I think will be most helpful in a classroom setting is the instructional techniques. I feel that this will be helpful when I am struggling to figure out how to teach a lesson. It will also be helpful if students need a topic to be explained in a different way because it will give me tips and ways which I can explain a topic that may differ from how I already had done. It also will help me further understand concepts in the Florida Standards that may be more complex.

I really enjoyed the Newsletter assignment because it helped me further develop my skills with Microsoft Word. It also helped me develop them in a relevant way to my future career as a teacher, and I like having assignments and developing skills that pertain to my future career. I can improve my skills next time by having more of a theme and making it more fun. I also can change up the organization of it to change it up. I learned how to make banners, use columns in only a certain area of the text, and how to add borders to the page. I feel much more confident in my skills because of this assignment.

Blog Post 2

Microsoft Word is an excellent tool for classrooms. I have used it to write papers for my classes. My teachers have used it to make quizzes and tests for my classes. I enjoyed learning how to make a fun newsletter that I can use in my classes in the future. This will allow me to use Word in new and exciting ways rather than just for boring quizzes.

I've had to deal with copyright through writing papers. I had to be very careful in school not to use the words of others in my papers. I learned how to make a bibliography which would give credit to the authors of any quotes or ideas that I used in my papers. I also would have to do this in slideshows for Images and any sources used when gathering my information. I will handle this in a classroom by having my students include the webpage address from where they found their information in their projects and papers. I will also create my own assignments or quizzes by using Microsoft word, and if I want to use someone else's, I will pay whatever fee is required and include their logo on the assignment when I distribute it. The key to avoiding copyright in any form is by giving credit where credit is due.

Three technology implementation issues are copyright, academic honesty, and cyberbully. I feel that I can deal with each one in my classroom. I will address the issue of copyright by creating my own assignments and quizzes. I will also ensure that anything not of my own creation will be paid for and cited. I will do the same for my students by teaching them how to cite their sources in papers and projects, and I will use Turnitin.com in order to check for levels of plagarism. Academic honesty is more of a challenge since documents can be shared on Google Drives, but it is hard to compare students' works to each other since there is no way to tell who competed the original assignment or whose ideas were taken. Photographs of assignments can also be taken and answers shared. I will deal with this issue by instilling how important it is for my students to do their own work. I also will have students present their project and paper ideas to me individually in order for me to know what that student's original ideas are, and I will address the issue of sharing assignment answers by having in class assessments and pop quizzes to test comprehension. This will allow me to tell if students have understanding of the assignment and are getting the right answers because they know what they are doing, or if they are just copying the answers and actually have no idea how to do the lesson. Cyberbullying has become a very big issue recently. I think this can be dealt with by encouraging students to support each other and by monitoring their online activity when using computers or iPads in class. I also believe it should be dealt with on a case by case basis since all bullies have different motives and all victims have different reactions to being bullied. Cyberbullying can be worse than normal bullying since the bully can be anonymous online. If this is the case, I would report it as anonymous in order for people to work to uncover who it is while I continue to encourage my students to be kind to each other.

Blog Post 1

Teachers and students are influenced by society to use technology in the classroom. The rapid development of technology requires us to stay up-to-date with our skills on being able to use it. Also, technology is used in all career fields, so we must prepare our students for potential use in their careers. Technology also makes our lives easier and connects us to the rest of the world via social media, and this connection can be utilized to increase learning and student attention in class.

The ISTE standards include being a learner, leader, citizen, collaborator, designer, facilitator, and analyst. I agree thinking that these are all valuable skills for a an educator to have in order to be an effective teaching. A teacher should always be able to learn from others whether it be their peers or even their students. They should be able to lead and command respect and inspire their students to learn. By being a citizen, they are helping their professional community continue to grow and develop. This involves the collaborating with other professionals. Designing new lesson plans and classroom activities is part of being a good educator. The two standards I feel that I do not fully meet yet are the facilitator and the analyst. I do not have the knowledge of technology yet in order to fully apply it to my lessons to help learning. I also am only at the beginning of my statistics class, so I do not have the skills yet on how to review the data I collect from grades in order to understand the impact of my lessons and alter them to be better.

I disagree with the label "digital native" for today's youth. I grew up with the internet, but it was not prominent in my childhood. My siblings and I were not given phones until 6th grade, and growing up, our parents encouraged us to spend our time outside and limited our time watching television or playing computer games each day. Because of this, we were raised spending time outside, playing sports, and reading books. I also have seen my Mimi, my maternal grandmother, use an iPhone and laptop as well as I do. This makes me believe that when you were born has little impact on your ability to use technology; it only matters how much you use it and the effort which you make. My teachers have always used a lecture-based way of teaching, so I have never experienced technology in the classroom outside of Powerpoints and the occasional SmartBoard, so I am unsure the level of understanding which most teachers have for technology and how that would impact a classroom environment. I personally learn best and enjoy learning the most when a classroom is set up in a lecture format with discussion days. I retain my information best by handwriting. Even in college, I do not take notes on my laptop because when I do, I end up copying everything down by hand to gain retention of the material. This makes me believe that technology is not a one-size-fits-all tool in the classroom due to various learning types.

Initial Blog Post (#0)

My name is Emily, and a little about me is: I am a sophomore in college studying elementary education. My Zodiac sign is a Leo. My favorite season is summer, and I hate the cold weather. I am happiest when I am at the beach, and I generally enjoy being outdoors in the sun. My hobbies include working out and spending time with my friends and family.

I don't have a lot of experience using technology in the classroom. In high school, my teachers rarely used Smartboards. In college, my teachers have used Top Hat and iClickers. I am familiar with the website of Canvas. This is my first time ever having or writing a blog, so I am looking forward to learning how to do this.

I hope this class helps me to understand technology better. I have all Apple products, so it will be fun to use and learn more on Windows products and apps. I am excited to get to go to the Sandbox again. I enjoyed it when my other education class went, so I am looking forward to seeing it again. I think this will be a fun class, and I am excited to improve my skills, so I can be more prepared to be a teacher in the future.