I Love Paper, but I Guess Technology Is Okay

I have really enjoyed using Twitter. I go onto it once or twice a day, and I always find an insightful article or tweet. Between this class, EDF1005, my observations, and Twitter, I'm expanding out into the education world; I've learned about classroom management, helping struggling students, and being observed by administration. The benefits of using Twitter are that there's a lot of teachers on there and that a lot of conversations are happening in the comments to clarify, argue, and defend. I haven't had any issues using Twitter yet because there are a lot of resources and posters are willing to answer questions. From the Web Design assignment, I learned about what can and what should be on a website, because I hadn't thought about including supplementary work alongside the normal course content. I like the school websites because it is the simplest way for everyone to view the content, but they do take a fair amount of time to create a good resource. However, ...

The website I found is from Deerlake Middle School in Leon County; the website is Mrs. Kilcoyne's, and she teaches 6th grade World History and 8th grade U.S. History. She has an about me page, calendars for both of her subjects, a history far page, and a student resources page. The calendars both have the daily activities, and if you click on the event, there's a brief description and links to papers used in class. I like her class calendar pages, because they are all-in-one and are easy for parents and students to access in case of an absence. Having the class website on the school website allows for parents to find the teacher instead of trying to remember the class website name.  I believe that I will use technology mainly to have information and resources available to everyone and to have shareable records. In high school, I took a class that had links to Quizlets, the class calendar, helpful YouTube videos, and anything else the students might ...

I was surprised at how easy it was to use Diigo as a group annotation program. I liked how I could highlight and annotate a website while also seeing others' comments. I think the Diigo group page is a little hard to navigate and understand, but it is still manageable. I think I might try Diigo in a classroom setting, because more and more annotations and group work happens online. It also saves time and paper for the teacher, which would work well for less important assignments. I have liked blogging, but I prefer to use Twitter as my primary PLN. I don't mind guided blogging, but I don't think I could do this without the topics given to me! I reflect better through physically writing information and making my own notes on my thoughts. With blogging, it feels like I'm talking into a void but without the privacy of my messy handwriting; at least with Twitter, I'm interacting with more people and am able to receive more information. A Web 2.0 tool that can be use...

VoiceThread I did my ILP on Google Classroom. I observe twice a week at FSUS, and the teacher uses it every day. I had heard that it was pretty easy to use, and turns out it is! I created a middle school American History classroom, and I made two topic areas to organize the classroom- "American Revolution" and "Getting to Know You". In the "American Revolution" topic, I made a question, a quiz, and an assignment; in the "Getting to Know You" topic, I made three fun questions for the students to answer. It was remarkably simple to create everything, and with a little bit of work, I think it would be an excellent resource for students to use. More and more schools are using more online supplements to education, and a Classroom is an excellent place to organize those supplements. I like it primarily as an organizational tool for teachers, and then as a place for students to view a lot of classroom resources and assignments. I think I will continue...

For 6th Grade, I am most comfortable with the ELA standard regarding using online resources for definitions and synonyms. I have been using such websites for many years now, and it would not be hard to adapt to more student-friendly ones. The Wordsmyth website gives the part of speech, different definitions, some basic synonyms, and what words it was derived from. This puts everything into one place, unlike Dictionary.com. The standard I am least conformable with is using multimedia aspects to "clarity information". I normally find that adding in a bunch of fluff can actually confuse and distract the student, so the struggle for me will be to use multimedia effectively. The standard suggests using graphics software, audio recorders, and move creators. For some subjects in history, it can be helpful to provide some cultural context in music, art, and video/audio clips, which would fulfill this standard. One of the resources I have found helpful is the list of standards,...

As a student, I've used Microsoft Word primarily for writing essays and papers. I was taught the very basics, for nothing besides some simple formatting troubleshoot was ever required. My teachers used it to present instructions on the computer and in paper form, to send home newsletters, and to do any basic computer work that PowerPoint was excessive. My teachers primarily used PowerPoint in class, because an interruption would not be needed for a new document, allowing the teacher to move at their own pace. I actually did not know how to do the majority of the skills we have learned in class, and I now know how to use Word better and not be as frustrated with it! In my experience, my teachers generally did not have a lot of problems with copyright, but they also took as much as they could without having to pay to use a document. In band, for example, sheet music is expensive but very hard to get illegally, so my band director had to pay for the music he wanted to play, which to...

Teachers and students are influenced to use technology because they are expected to do so, at least in early education. As students get older and become more experienced with technology, they figure out how to use it in their own way and to achieve goals, such as finding help on homework, writing a research paper, and other projects. Teachers are usually encouraged to use more technology in their classrooms by the administration and by examples of other teachers. Although teachers learned technology some twenty plus years before, they can largely teach young students the basics required to learn newer technologies on their own. My experience with computers, online games, and phones  when I was younger made it easier for me to learn to use a smartphone when my parents had them. One ISTE standard for educators I like is the "Learner" standard, which includes setting professional learning goals, developing personal learning networks, and staying current with education research...