3. the 101 of teaching with technology

I wasn’t there when the class explored Edmodo and I have never used it before so I don’t really know much about it. Then I decided to look around the site myself and honestly, I’m kind of confused. I think it’s similar to blackboard because the teachers use it to communicate with their students, but it is also similar to twitter and Facebook from just looking at the set up. To me, it seems like a bunch of things going on all at once. I can see how it would be useful once I understand how to use it. With all the confusion there was one thing that was super easy to understand and that was the notification tab; it tells you what you need to do and when and it’s very clear. All in all, I would definitely like to explore Edmodo some more because while confusing, it was also very creative. If you’d like to check it out, click on this link; edmodo. 

If I were to become a teacher, there are many ways technology would play a role in my classroom. I would most likely be teaching high school, juniors and seniors because I would be able to more likely use technology in more ways with an older age group. While I attended high school, we had a website in which we could check our grades at any time. I definitely would use this with my students, it helps keep them on track and if they are missing an assignment they can immediately talk to the teacher. Another tool I would love to incorporate would be discussion boards. This offers the opportunity for my students to communicate with one another and the teachers as well. If a student has a question about an assignment, or maybe even just wants to share their opinion about a topic, they can post about it on the discussion board. My students would also have a site in which their assignments get posted and where they would turn in their work electronically, I think this is much easier to communicate and it helps save unnecessary paper use. While using the internet, it is important to teach my students about digital citizenship. There many guidelines in which to follow and I would address all the concepts. My students would need to understand how to navigate the web, but one of the most important guidelines to me is “netiquette.” Students must be polite and respectful when using the web, especially towards others. It would be a huge consequence if a student participated in “cyber-bullying” because saying hurtful things over the internet is never okay. Not revealing personal information is also so very important, and plagiarism is an absolute no.

I very much enjoyed working on the Newsletter Design Assignment. I learned how to use columns in a word document, which I never have done before. It also let me show my creative side! I enjoyed being able to use word art and altering it to the way I wanted. Making the newsletter is showing me new and cool ways Microsoft Word can be used.