Blog 9!!

     Hello! So far this semester distance learning has been much more manageable than my previous semesters at FSU. I have actually been participating in distance learning since the summer going into my freshman year of high school. I always took an FLVS course or two during the summer months so that I can have more room in my high school schedule for band classes/electives. I really like how most of the time you can learn at your own pace while distance learning. I also like the convenience of it. I don't like that it is pretty difficult for me to learn while distance learning. I can understand the material in the moment or for a little quiz on the concept, but I can't reiterate anything that I have learned in those classes really. I know a lot of others who have participated in distance learning have a hard time budgeting their time so that they are able to get their work done on time. So, as a teacher, I could help my students set goals, make checklists of what needs to get done and help them schedule specific times to get their work done. This will help make their experience better because they will not be rushing through assignments to get them done before the deadline, but instead, have a healthy relationship between time and what needs to get done. This way they are ultimately less stressed about the overall process of distance learning.

    Open Educational Resources (OER) are resources that are very accessible and are typically shared through an online platform. These resources are accessible because they are openly licensed. These resources can include textbooks, modules, course materials, videos, etc. The article I found is from Pennsylvania State and it goes over the benefits of using OERs in the classroom based on the research they have collected. There are a lot of videos within this article as well that outlined generally the same thing. Some of the benefits include continually improved resources, expanded access to learning, and scalability.

    From the first PowerPoint assignment, I learned that it is pretty difficult to simplify your wording so that your students can understand what is being taught as well as that it is difficult to cut down the number of words on the slides. From the second PowerPoint assignment, I learned how to put my own sound into the program for transitions (it is .WAV instead of .mp3)and how to hyperlink images/things to the same document. I liked both of the activities because I was able to be creative when choosing the topic and making the slides. Plus I thought my jeopardy game was fun and I played it with a few of my friends to test their 7th Grade Earth Science knowledge and to test if they have been listening to me when I talk about things going on in my Geology major. I disliked how long it took for me to learn how to do certain requirements because some didn't work the first few times or didn't work at all so I had to look up different ways to do it and try those out. 

Blog 8!!

    Hello! I think I definitely acquired technology skills when creating my website. Skills such as embedding different items and adding a slide show of pictures. I also learned what looks good and what doesn’t and how to format the website so that it is pleasant to look at. I liked that I was able to be creative while doing an assignment. I also liked the website that we used. I think it was pretty user-friendly. I don’t particularly enjoy how the requirements on the assignment are written out. I wish it was set up as a checklist or something to make it easier to read. This is because it says “everything for a pass and then some”, but I wish everything was laid out instead of saying that. Making things visually appealing will be very important in my future career so I am glad that I am getting that practice in. Website link: Click Here!

    I think Diigo is a very useful tool. I have learned how to bookmark and annotate websites through Diigo. This application would be useful in the classroom when the kids are working on a document as a group or want to share what they find with their classmates. Diigo offers that ability fairly easily. With team members it would be very useful when sharing resources amongst each other. In my individual professional efforts, I think it would be useful because it adds an easier space for me to read and annotate documents and have those annotations saved. This will be very helpful when reading scientific research papers in my career.

    I found Education Technology Insights super helpful in terms of staying aware of technological trends and changes going on within education. There are many articles on this website that are used to keep anyone who is interested updated and in tune with what is going on. All of the authors that I looked at seemed knowledgeable and qualified to be writing articles about the topics that they are writing about. This website is also updated regularly which is very important when trying to stay up to date in the classroom. I would definitely use this website if/whenever I become a teacher so that I can remain in the loop.

Blog 7!!

Hello!

    I searched for high schools that have teacher websites and Dale High School popped up. The teachers each have a webpage that is active or used to be active during the peak of COVID-19. The information that I was able to find on their websites included lesson plans, syllabi, daily schedules, student resources for in-class, photo albums, and information about the teacher. Some teachers even had portals that students could submit their homework in. As well as a place to find all the events or important information from the school as a whole. For example, information about prom or graduation.

    I envision myself using technology to share resources with my students and colleagues. I will also use it for communication purposes. An example of this is Canvas announcements. I will also use technology within my lesson plans to try to steer away from the typical lecturing and note-taking to help my students understand the material better. Some specific teacher productivity tools I will use include Grammarly, Google Drive, and Online Stopwatch. These tools will help with communication, sharing, and timing out specific parts of the day.

    My experience with PB Works wasn't the best. This is because I didn't really enjoy the platform, especially for group work. At first, it was pretty confusing to get started. Then only one person could edit a page at a time so we couldn't all work on the evaluation form or the write-up on the front page. Then the program was down for the weekend it was due, but when it came back up it reverted back to what it was like before the program went down. I did like that once we got a hang of how it worked, it was much easier to use and navigate. For my future K-12 students I could use a wiki to spark creativity in the classroom/lesson plan and make the students feel like they are in control of their learning. A lesson plan I would like to use it for is maybe describing a specific topic.

Blog 6!!

     I liked using Diigo. I have never used it before so this was my first experience with it. It went pretty smoothly as it was user-friendly in the sense that the layout was very organized and very easy to use. I thought it was easy to view what others in the class had posted as well as make a post myself. I really enjoy the annotation feature. It made it very easy to highlight important phrases as well as make notes with the sticky note feature.

    I have always really enjoyed blogging in classes. For assignments, I blogged while in English class senior year using different vocab words and topics, so this wasn't new to me. I enjoy it because it gives a different take on doing an assignment. I honestly don't feel like I am doing an assignment when I am writing these blogs. Also, the websites I have used have been very organized and easy to use. Whether that is in terms of posting, customizing your blog page, or looking at other classmates' posts.

    An interesting Web 2.0 tool that we have not covered yet and that I would like to incorporate into my classroom is ClassDojo. It is a very easy tool to use in the classroom and has had great success with limiting disruptions in the classroom. The tool allows teachers to connect with parents very easily through messaging, pictures, videos, and more. It also allows the students to contact the teacher. It also is used to update the student's behavior. Students are able to look at the assignments that are due and contact the teacher if needed. Students can also post pictures and videos to their profile which gives them a voice. I believe ClassDojo is an important tool to introduce to the classroom. Link: https://www.classdojo.com/ 

Blog 4!

    I chose the standard LAFS.5.W.2.6 which is in grade 5. It essentially states that students will be able to use technology to create writing pieces and work together. Students should also show that they have improved their typing or use of keyboarding skills as well as be able to type two pages of writing content in one sitting. I do feel prepared to implement this standard based on my current skill set because I have been using technology to collaborate and write since I was in elementary school, but I have gotten much better over time. Especially since the shift to technology assignments or websites such as Canvas and Google Classroom and the use of Chromebooks in school happened while I was in middle school. However, I do believe it is odd to have a standard that states that a student in 5th grade should be able to type a MINIMUM of two pages in one sitting. I think that is a little overboard. I definitely didn't have that attention span in 5th grade especially when it came to writing. I barely type two pages in one sitting now because I get burnt out from writing very easily so I have to portion my assignments out over a couple days or so.

    I chose to look at 5th-grade mathematics tool kits. One that I found very interesting was virtual manipulatives. They are replicating handheld manipulatives such as coins, 10 blocks, fraction pieces, and clocks online. I would definitely use these in my classroom from time to time. I am sure they have been very helpful over the course of this pandemic because they avoided parents having to buy them or buy a class set and send them to each student. Hopefully, by the time I might become a teacher, I won't have to worry about that though. I would use these tools in my classroom in the event that I don't have enough for everyone to have their own set. I would also use this because some students feel more comfortable with technology than with hands-on items. Technology also activates a different part of the brain. Students could also think that using technology in this sense is fun. These all are reasons I would implement virtual manipulatives in my classroom because it would tailor the assignment to different students and help them learn the material in a different way to get a better understanding of the concept.

    It is important to be a proficient internet searcher as a teacher because they need to be able to find resources and materials that will work best for their pool of students. Different years of students may find resources unhelpful that other years thought were helpful. So it is almost like you are needing to tailor your findings to how your students learn best and what they struggle with every year. Of the internet skills that were introduced this week, I think I will be using Google Advanced Search more often to find resources to help me out with my geology courses. I am not sure if this tool is considered a skill, but I enjoy using Google Scholars for my geologic papers and references. Most of the resources that come up with your search are peer-reviewed and it has been really helpful during my college career.

Blog 3!

Hello!

Copyright is used to protect someone's original creations or ideas from being used or distributed by others. Some examples of items that tend to be copyrighted are books, music, and motion pictures. Fair use allows people to create copies of copyrighted material only for educational and nonprofit purposes. However, there are some limitations because it depends on different factors: the amount of the copyrighted material being used, how it is being used in general, and the effect of the material being used. There are so many instructional tools and classroom materials in general that can be found online. In order for me to use these, I would need to make sure that I am allowed to use them in my classroom. Most of the time you can tell what you can and cannot use because it will state for public use or not and maybe even make you pay for the item. For my own creations, I will look into getting them copyrighted. For my students' own creations I will remind them of the rules about using copyrighted material and what to do if they would like to copyright their own material whether that is now or in the future.

One technology implementation issue is cyberbullying. Chromebooks that are used in schools for educational purposes have a word filter system on them. This word filter system highlights words that are inappropriate or considered rude. Then someone filters through all of the documents they receive to see if it was an actual violation or not because sometimes it can be for an assignment. As a teacher, I can remind my students of what cyberbullying is and its effects. I can also remind them that what they say/do can follow them for a very long time or maybe their whole lifetime. Lastly, I can then remind them of the word filter system that is in place on the technology. Another technology implementation issue is academic dishonesty. There are many websites that detect plagiarism in assignments so I would use those in my classroom. I would let my students know that I will be sending their assignments through plagiarism detectors if I sense that someone might've not submitted their own, original work. I would encourage my students to come to me with any and all questions because that is what I am there for. I would answer these questions happily knowing they are cheating or plagiarizing. 

A skill that I acquired from working on the newsletter was picture placement and how exactly to use columns effectively. Sometimes when I put my pictures onto my document they wouldn't move how I wanted them to. So, I learned how to wrap them and place them exactly where I would like. Then, I learned about the columns. I already knew how to put my document into columns but I didn't really know how to work or format them until working on this newsletter. I can improve my newsletter in the future by using a better color scheme. For some reason the way that my document looked on word and saved as a pdf had totally different colors so it was hard to work with. I finally got them to both be the same color but it took a long time and by then I had lost my patience with it. In my future career, geology, pamphlets and posters are often made to share your research so this helped me become more familiar with Microsoft Word.

Blog 2!!

    I don't have too much experience using Microsoft Word in school because Chromebooks were introduced to me in middle school and I have used Google Docs since then because I am familiar with it. In my freshman year of high school, I did get Microsoft certified, but I definitely lost those skills since I learned them and did not use them for years. At FSU, I have used Microsoft Word a little bit more than in high school because the education courses that I have taken preferred to use Word. However, I do still prefer Google Docs because I am more familiar with it and don't have to play around with the software to do my assignments and get them to look the way I want them to.

    The ISTE standard that I found most meaningful to me was 2.5 Designer. This standard essentially states that teachers should use technology to introduce different learning tools to accommodate different styles of learning which benefit a wide range of students in multiple ways. This facilitates a better understanding of the material. This also allows students to be creative and exposes them to a new learning environment. 

    A "digital native" is someone that was born in a time where technology is very popular and is used in many different ways than it used to. It can also be used to classify a group that uses technology as their native language in a way. This is a group of people who can learn different digital technology fast and efficiently.  I definitely agree with the term "digital natives" because the groups before the "digital native" group have a harder time picking up on different uses of technology and have a difficult time understanding how to get technology to work the way they want it to. However, if they pass the device to someone who is considered a digital native or even just show them a digital program they can reach the digital immigrant's goal faster. I didn't see much of a difference in the use of technology between myself and my teachers in grades K-12 because they were teaching a digital generation and wanted to "keep up". There were times when they would ask questions or would not be as fast setting up a PowerPoint as students were. However, there have been large differences between most of my teachers at FSU and myself with the use of technology. They are constantly asking questions and choose to work around technology or take longer getting used to different websites. Honestly, I feel as if this has made me more flexible in my learning which I have a hard time with because I tend to be a creature of habit. I do think, however, that sometimes the teachers who tend to not use technology can use it to make both of our lives easier in the learning environment, but they try to avoid it at all costs. I feel as if this will be a constant cycle. The generations after us will always be more knowledgeable and efficient in terms of technology, but with every generation, the groups will get better. For example, we are better than our parents in terms of technology, our kids will be better at technology than us, then their kids will be better at them.