Blog Journal 8

I have enjoyed working with Diigo this past month because it has opened my eyes to new ways students and educators can connect. This website allowed my peers and I to share new websites on relevant topics and highlight/annotate specific sections of these articles to show what we thought was most important. I learned how to use this website with the extension from Google Chrome and I was able to sufficiently share information with my classmates and professor. Diigo can be implemented in my classroom with upper-level students since it does require literacy competence and the ability to maneuver a computer. This can be used in the classroom by having my students look up relevant articles that pertains to the topics we are discussing during that week and share them with their classmates with comments and annotations. I could also use Diigo with team member by sharing articles that could be helpful to my fellow educators such as how to increase student productivity. In my individual professional efforts I can use Diigo to find articles pertaining to higher education and continuing education to further my academic career. Diigo can be used in and outside of the classroom because it functions as a way to share important articles and highlight the main points of the findings.

Student's learning can be supported at each level of Bloom's Taxonomy through PowerPoint. The bottom category of Bloom's taxonomy 'remember' can be supported using PowerPoint by using the CRAP principles in the powerpoint slides. The slide can help students recall facts through repetition in the slides which can facilitate student's memorization skills. Next, the second level of Bloom's taxonomy is 'understand' which involves students ability to explain ideas and concepts. Educators can use PowerPoint to give a definition of terms or classify groups of items to help the student recognize what a certain concept means. The next category in the taxonomy is 'apply' meaning students should be able to use information in new situations. PowerPoint can facilitate this concept by providing real-life examples within the slides that could be useful to the students outside of the classroom. The third level of Bloom's taxonomy is 'analyze' which requires students to draw connections among ideas. Educators can use PowerPoint to achieve this by implementing questions and mini practice tests inside of their PowerPoint lesson to help students relate to the information. Next, 'evaluate' is the level of the taxonomy that involves students' ability to justify a stand. Educators can help students make a decision in their PowerPoints by making students take a stand in an argument within the slide. Divide the class in half and require students to support or refute their arguments. Finally, the top level of Bloom's Taxonomy is 'create' which wants students to produce new or original work. Educators can allow students to create a PowerPoint of their own on the lesson they have just learned in order for them to design and be the author of their own work.

Technology and teacher professional development go hand in hand. The world is changing every single day and teachers have the responsibility of disseminating this newfound information to their students. Educators need to understand how people learn and need to support this process through their professional development. This teacher professional development should be grounded in the classroom since it is context bound and teachers should utilize what their classroom has to offer. This process takes time because educators need to build connections and this kind of training cannot happen overnight. Educators must promote learning in their classrooms and technology can facilitate this much easier. Computer tools can allow teachers the opportunity to construct meaningful connections with other like-minded professionals. This kind of technology can include virtual FaceTime software to chat with people around the world. Online conferences can also be a source of professional development if educators cannot physically be present. Integrating e-learning into a teachers program can influence the quality of their teaching and students ability to absorb this information. Educators should use technology to gain experience and connections to further their teacher professional development.
Cite Journal: Technology Infused Professional Development

ILP #2-- Personal Learning Network

Professional development in an educational setting is imperative and finding new technology to facilitate this is just as important. I decided to choose the online tool of Reddit.com to include in my personal learning network. Over the course of the past week I have had the opportunity to participate in a subreddit, which is a smaller community of Reddit. I focused my attention on education and interacted with educators, professionals and other students in this forum. My project gives a brief overview of the functions of Reddit, and explains the subreddit I engaged with. I also note the participation log I have been keeping for the past week which has identified the number of posts and some topic headings of the subreddit. I have thoroughly enjoyed this project and hope to keep expanding my PLN as the semester continues.

Voicethread: ILP #2 PLN

Blog Journal 7

So far this semester I have thoroughly enjoyed using Twitter. Participating in chats with other professionals and learning something new everyday has been one of the aspects of this class that I look forward to every Tuesday and Thursday. After using Twitter this semester, I have learned that educators do have twitters and they engage in professional development for themselves through this application. I have also learned that virtually every organization has a Twitter account and tries to engage with their audience through this website daily to engage with their followers. The benefits of using Twitter are staying connected with people in your field and community that interest you or share the same passions as you do. Twitter is also a great resource to build a personal learning network as a young professional still in my undergraduate years at FSU. So far I have not run into issues with using Twitter because I was experienced with this application before. I have enjoyed engaging with more knowledgeable people and will continue this account after this course is over.

I enjoyed using Weebly to create my own website this past week! Making my own teacher page for students and parents to stay up-to-date with material for my class was fun and allowed me to express creativity. I chose to create a psychology teacher page for high school students that were preparing for the AP Exam and learning the basics of psychology. I liked how there were so many options on Weebly to add in different elements to the website such as images, calendars, text and titles. I did not like how limited the design of the website itself was since I chose a template from the options. If I create another website using Weebly I would most likely create my own rather than use a template because I felt somewhat limited in my creative design. I learned the creating a teacher webpage is a time consuming task and students should appreciate when teachers actually keep their websites up-to-date. In my future career I hope to create a cohesive teacher page for my students to utilize that would be helpful for their success in my classroom. Ms. Otto's Psychology Class

Assistive and adaptive technologies are used to support learners by increasing a student's ability to access learning materials and becoming participants instead of bystanders. These kind of technologies help people with disabilities perform tasks easier than without. For example, if a student has difficulty being able to see a standard monitor, the could use voice recognition devices instead of typing or text-to-speech software that allows them to still utilize the computer. I have not known anyone to use these kind of technologies but I am thankful that they are being used for students with disabilities because everyone should be able to reap the benefits of technology. Some challenges of using adaptive technologies in the classroom could include insufficient equipment or connectivity. Sometimes technology does not work like it should and this could be an issue if a student is depending upon a certain piece of technology to work 100% of the time. Also, if my school district does not own the type of assistive and adaptive technology that could assist a student in need, they would not be benefitting from their education.

Blog Journal 6

I searched "Leon County High School Teacher Pages" on Google to find teacher sites that I could access. I found Swift Creek Middle School and looked at several teacher pages from their homepage. The page that I found in particular with the most information on their site was a 6th grade band teacher. Other teacher pages did not have any information on it, or had links to other sites that directed the viewer elsewhere. This band teachers page has the most information out of all the educators at Swift Creek Middle School. I see four bolded titles of upcoming events happening such as "Band Parent Meeting" and "Jazz Band/Symphonic Band Auditions". Underneath these headings are a brief explanation of when they will be occurring and what students/parents should be prepared with. There is a link to a form for an audition that needs to be filled out before auditioning, and also a link to the Band Calendar for the month. Underneath all of the headings there is a graphic that says "Be in Band!" and lists reasons why students should join the band. This graphic is visually appealing to the viewers and matches the text. The overall format of this teacher page is aesthetically pleasing and shows contrasting colors. This band page is for 6th grade students and Ms. Emma Haley is the teacher responsible for the page.

Band Teacher Webpage 

I envision myself using technology to accomplish my professional responsibilities more efficiently and effectively in my classroom by using technology that is useful to my grade level and specialty. I would like to use Kahoot to create fun games for my students so they could interact with me, as well as better understand the information I am teaching them. Kahoot is great for creating quizzes, polls, short answer questions and other types of games. Other websites I would like to use in my classroom would be Diigo because I have enjoyed it so much when I have used it in the classroom here are FSU. This tool would be geared more towards older aged students since it requires some computer competence and the ability to browse the Internet for related search criteria. Students in my classroom could find articles pertaining to the information we are discussing and highlight/comment on them to interact with the material and with their peers. Depending on the grade level I am teaching I would use differing technology to accommodate information to my students. 

Last week I visited the Tech Sandbox in the Department of Education Building and it was very interesting! My favorite pieces of technology that the guides showed us were the 3D printers and the ClearTouch board. The 3D printer could be used in the classroom to create models of complicated topics that students are trying to grasp and need a visual representation of. This could range from molecules in science class to triangles and shapes for mathematic calculations. The ClearTouch board could also be used in the classroom and would be my favorite piece of technology to use! This board could be divided into sections so multiple students could use it at one time which was my favorite feature. The ClearTouch has many functions like playing a piano, conducting science experiments or searching content on the Internet. Many applications can be opened at once on this touch-screen board so that possibilities are endless. In my classroom I would encourage my students to explore their interests on the ClearTouch by searching for educational applications like learning how to play the piano or  tutoring for a certain subject. Overall, the Tech Sandbox had many pieces of technology that would be great to use in the classroom to enhance students learning experience. 

Bog Journal 5

My initial experiences using Diigo were pleasant. I was skeptical at first to use this new technology because I have never even heard of this website before. After downloading the gadget to my home page with the extension I had to figure out how to highlight information and create group sticky notes with the resource. It was little confusing in the beginning because I did not know how to sync my sticky notes to the whole class but eventually I overcame this challenge. The resource makes annotating and commenting on pieces of text on the Internet easy and simple. I like how accessible this technology is to students because all they have to do is download the extension and then they can sign in and highlight any piece of text they wish to. I do not like how one-dimensional this technology is. I wish there were other functions than highlighting and commenting on the resource to make it more exciting.

I have come to really enjoy blogging. I loved how we were able to design and create our own blogs at the beginning of the semester. Creating weekly journal entries has become one of my favorite homework assignments because it is self-explanatory and independent. I like how there are prompts we are given and must answer within each blog post and how thoughts can come and ago as this process occurs. I however do not like how strict our writing must be with a certain amount of sentences and paragraphs. There are times when I feel like I do not have enough information to give a substantial paragraph but in the end it all works out. Thus far I have learned how to use Blogger and know the ways that I write best. This is usually once all of my classes are done in the afternoon when I begin working on schoolwork for the day. The blogging process is time consuming but rewarding when I see my blog post on my Blogger home page.

An interesting Web 2.0 tool that I found is called 'Poll Everywhere'. This educational tool allows teachers to create polls for their classrooms that can be comprised of any question and options. There are multiple choice polls, open-ended questions, Q&A style polls, and even clickable images through this site. Educators can create an activity and select the kind of polling style they would like. When they are ready for the poll to go live, they activate it so the students can engage as well. Students can respond to these polls through text message responses, web responses through the polling page, as well as web responses through a private link. I would use this tool in my classroom with middle-school or high-school aged students because it would require the use of a cell phone or computer of sorts. This is a great new tool that allows students and educators to connect through instant messaging instead of verbal communication.
Poll Everywhere

Blog Journal 4

My Twitter experience started in the beginning of high school around 9th grade. I remember seeing my friends on the app around me and I was curious was the purpose of the app was. I downloaded it on my laptop because I did not have a smartphone yet and browsed celebrities tweets. Ever since joining in high school I have created a close-knit community that I follow on my Twitter account. I follow my friends and sports athletes on the teams that I follow. Recently on my educational twitter account for this course I interact with educational content and technology accounts. I have been interacting with educators, professors, professionals and associations that tweet about their views on educational technology. Twitter might be helpful in my future career as a school psychologist by keeping up to date on the most recent research findings and conferences upcoming in my area. Twitter pages are created daily to notify people of upcoming psychology conferences and research symposiums.

The digital divide is the space between those who have ready access to computers and those who do not. The divide affects student success in schools especially in this decade. Teachers and professors are requiring students to complete schoolwork on their own time after class which is impossible without a computer available at home. For students who have access to computers when they are away from their educational institution, this is no issue; for those students who do not have access, this could lead to poor grades due to the inability to complete assignments at home. Some causes of the digital divide are socioeconomic status because those who cannot pay for a computer and Internet access is not able to use this kind of technology. Motivation is also a contributor to the digital divide because people who do not have the spare time to learn technology do not bother to educate themselves. Since people have lived without technology before, some don't see a need in using computers 24/7 and rather living in the moment and consuming paper materials. As a classroom teacher I expect to experience the digital divide at some level with my students. This will affect my teaching strategies by not having my students rely on computer and the Internet for completing their work at home. Rather I would assign homework given on paper or reading in physical books so students of all SES can earn the grades they deserve.

Academic software for students is designed to facilitate different types of educational processes. Two software tools that I would like to implement in my future classroom is Canvas and Microsoft Word. I find that having all of my courses listed in Canvas is very beneficial and keeps myself organized throughout the semester. Canvas is a great tool for teachers to post assignments and due dates for their students in an organized fashion. MS Word is another software that I would love to use with my students because it teaches a valuable life-skill of being competent in typing. MS Word is used everyday in my life and I see a value of teaching my students how to use this software.

ILP Design #1-- Piktochart

I decided to create an Infographic for this design project using the educational technology of Piktochart. This free website is a tool that allows anyone to create infographics, posters, presentations and flyers. Inside of the site users can decide if they want to use a pre-made template or create their own design. Piktochart is user-friendly and allows educators to better convey information to their students. Infographics are virtual flyers that use pictures, words and colors to create a visually appealing graphic. It has been shown that students absorb educational material more readily when it is shown in this kind of format. The infographic I created using Piktochart relates to the 4th grade ELA writing process and consists of prewriting, drafting, revising and publishing stages. This is a start to finish representation of the writing process intended to teach students effective writing strategies. Educators of all levels can access this free website to create graphic content for their classroom. In the future, educators like myself and fellow peers can implement this educational tool into our classrooms. Learning more about Piktochart to create an infographic was enjoyable and a great project overall to explore new educational technology!

Voice Thread
Piktochart--Infographic