8. Digital Divide No More!

Reading through chapter 12, there were so many different technologies that could be useful in future education. The one that stood out to me the most was electronic paper. This is just so cool to me, it is a flexible light-weight printed material that could replace e-books and tablets. Now, this technology is in developmental stages, but I think it could be a huge breakthrough in the classroom setting. This electronic paper can be folded and rolled up, making it compact and unbreakable, so kids won’t have the worry that if they drop it, it could break. Not only that, it has low power consumption and replaces paper products; making it better for the environment.  It displays information from a network or cloud onto the screen. It prevents using paper handouts because it is able to change its content and display different information throughout the class day. Printed paper is used all the time in the classrooms, electronic paper is sure to be the same. I personally would use this product all the time in my classroom.

One of the “future technologies” not mentioned in the textbook is the 3D movies. 3D is everywhere nowadays, the theaters, even people’s homes, but is it in the classrooms? I think that 3D screens should be in every classroom. When learning about a subject, say coral reefs, the teachers often show videos and pictures to the students.  By using a 3D screen to watch those videos, the students could feel more engaged, almost like they were in the coral reefs themselves! It creates interest and excitement when things seem more real.Find the TV's here!

The digital divide is a term used to describe the gap between people who have access to technology and those who do not. Not only is this a problem in developing countries but it is also a huge issue in the US. Typically this term refers to the educational context; students having access to computers and internet at home and at school versus those who don’t. I am on the side in where I believe all students should have access to technology. I think if the parents cannot provide that, the schools and classrooms should. The problem with a digital divide is that some students will grow up uncomfortable with technology and that can hurt them in their later careers. It doesn’t just affect students by not having access but it affects their knowledge about technology and their skill. Students with access to computers and technology have an advantage over those who don’t have technology readily available. Students who grow up around technology and having access to technology will have more confidence in technology use for their career. Because some students don’t have access, it can create a divided workforce. This could greatly affect my future classroom if some students continue to not have access to technology. I wouldn’t be able to post assignments solely online, I couldn’t require a typed essay, little things like that can be a huge problem for those without access. In the future, I will make sure my school has easy, readily available access of technology for all students.

Make your Powerpoint more interesting!

I love this presentation because it shows us different ways to be more creative on PowerPoint. This presentation caught my interest.

8 Tips for an Awesome Powerpoint Presentation from Damon Nofar

7. Technology and Learning Disabilities

PowerPoint is a great tool that many teachers use in their daily lessons. In fact, almost all of my teachers use PowerPoint to teach their lessons. Blooms Taxonomy was created to promote higher forms of thinking in education. Let’s say I was teaching a class a lesson about the cardiovascular system, I could use each learning domain in a different slide to go through my lesson. This is especially important with science experiments and social experiments.

Adaptive technologies are technologies designed to help students with special needs. Students who deal with technology and physical disabilities can use technology to help them learn better. Students who cannot read or are blind can use voice recognition software to input information and they can also use text to speech software to output information. I have used both of these software’s. I often use Siri to type my messages when I am driving or just too lazy to type out a long text and my car also reads my text messages to me when I’m on the road so I don’t look at my phone. There are some problems with voice recognition software; maybe the software doesn’t understand you fully and mistypes. There are also problems with text to speech software like maybe it mispronounces something. Not only those things but students should learn how to type and how to spell. If I used adaptive technology like the voice recognition software all the time, my students wouldn’t learn how to spell or type.

This week’s assignment, web page design, was kind of a tough one for me. I really struggled with trying to figure out my way around the website. All the different options were just super confusing to me and I easily got frustrated when it wasn’t doing what I wanted. I couldn’t figure out how to add a picture for so long. But, in the end, I started to get the hang of it and actually began to enjoy it. I was having fun making my very own website. Although I do wish the website we were using had a tutorial or a walk-through of how to use each tool and what each tool did. I think that creating websites is something I will definitely be having my students do. In our current society, we look up everything on google, and we click on websites to find our answers. Creating those websites ourselves would not only be a fun experience but it would also give my students a chance to see just how much work goes into making those websites we visit every day. Not only that but as a teacher I think it is vitally important to have a class website so that the parents can check on the student. With a class website the parents are able to see what the student is doing that week, sometimes even see pictures of the students working, and receive announcements about upcoming events. You can check out my website I made here.

6 Class sites, Websites and Professional Efficiency

The school website I visited was the Stevenson school. This school requires teachers to regularly update their individual class web pages for K-8^th grade. The grade level I decided to click on was first grade. In this class website, the teacher has a section on classroom news where she updates the parents what the kids are learning and what they are going to learn next. She also talks about the activities the children are doing. Another great thing about this class site is the tab where you can see their daily schedules. It gives the parents a chance to see what their kids are doing and when. My favorite part about this class site is the gallery tab. This teacher takes pictures of the kids doing the activities and puts it on the website for the parents. If I was a parent I would love to be able to see my kid learning and having fun doing it! You can check out their classroom page by clicking here.

There are many ways I envision myself using technology in the classroom. In chapter 7, it talks a lot about word processors. Word processors allow teachers to create calendars, newsletters, flyers, class stationary, and classroom websites. I definitely think I would use word processors to accomplish my professional responsibilities more effectively. I like the idea of class websites. I think parents would greatly appreciate it as well. To have a site that tells what the kids are learning, what they will learn helps the parents become more involved. Productivity tools are vital in the classroom today. This includes computer based tools as well. Google calendar would be a great way keep my lesson plans on task and make sure I am covering all parts of the subject I am teaching. Using technology based tools to plan a lesson is a great way to make my professional responsibilities more efficient.

I actually enjoyed working on the Web Resource Evaluation. I learned how to verify if a website was credible or not and what defines a reliable site. Another part I enjoyed about the web resource eval was being able to work in groups. My group collaborated efficiently and we each contributed an equal part to the assignment. The only thing I disliked about the assignment was the website we used to create it. I didn’t really understand how to navigate it very well and I easily got confused by its layout. If I were to do this again I would probably want to make the rubrics through Word. I do like how the whole assignment is set up on wiki, even though I struggled with it. I think that in the future I will definitely create a rubric for my students to use on the websites they get information from. I want my students to understand the difference between a credible source and not so credible source. By teaching students to spot out criteria that make a website reliable from a young age, it will help them later on when they have to write research papers or other assignments of the same sort. 

5 Web 2.0 in Education

          Web 2.0 tools are often used in classroom elements in many different and interesting ways. Teachers and students both use web 2.0. Web 2.0 are websites that interact with users and other people. Sites that are used for social networking, YouTube and blogs to name a few are web 2.0 tools. Teachers use YouTube to share videos of relevant information to their subject matter, and lots of teachers have started using a classroom blog, where students can post and interact with their classmates. I think those are some of the most useful. Also students use web 2.0 tools all the time. Students can use wiki to engage in collaborative writing and knowledge. Students can use twitter to follow scientists, teachers, and other educational personal, where they can look at the insights of others and also so they can directly ask those scholars questions. Another great web 2.0 tool for students I feel is useful is diigo. On this site, students can use resources found online and take notes directly from that page. All students will need to access these sites are a computer, internet access, a mouse, a keyboard, and a screen (91). The periphery equipment needed would be flash drives and printers.

         The interesting web 2.0 tool that I have decided to use is called diigo. This site allows you to create student accounts for an entire class easily. Students within a diigo group (often a class) can start using all that diigo provides, such as group bookmarks, annotations and group forums. Diigo allows teachers to highlight critical features within a text and images. They can also directly write comments on the webpages, for notes or to even use a series of websites to start conversations or teach a lesson. Diigo integrates tags and folders, highlighting, clipping, sticky notes, and group-based collaboration.

         Privacy is very important for diigo. This site has privacy settings that are pre-set so that only teachers and classmates can communicate. Students can only communicate with their friends and teachers. No one can send the students a message, group invite or write on their wall unless the teacher adds them. Students profile will not be available to public search engines either. To sign up for diigo you can go to this site: www.diigo.com/education.

      I love using concept mapping to study so I was actually super excited to learn how to use concept mapping on a computer. I usually just write them out because I wasn’t aware of a software that could be used online. Concept mapping is a great way to organize thoughts and connect different terms within a subject. It was a little difficult at first to figure it out on the computer but I soon got the hang of it and learned a couple new things. I never knew that there were so many different types of concept mapping, and I also didn’t know that by using linking words it would make it so much easier to understand. I definitely think I will have my students use concept mapping as a way to study. I think having a visual representation of what the students are learning and how the different terms connect is vital! Below is an example of a concept map I made using two different types of concept maps and converging them to one.