Blog Post #4
I believe that my Twitter Personal Learning Network project is going very well. This is a great project because it is very interactive and prepares future teachers to find innovative ways to use social media networks. I have been very active on Twitter and have been engaging with professionals in the field of educational technology. One account that I have interacted with is called Classcraft. This is the Twitter account of a start up company that creates educational gaming software. Specifically, the company created adventure gaming software. I tweeted my support of their company's message last week and they liked the tweet in return. Another Twitter account that I have interacted with is Times Higher Education. They tweeted and expressed their opinion on why teachers should not have professional social media accounts. I replied to their tweet and gave a differing opinion in order to provide new insight. Twitter can be very helpful in a teachers career. I have only been on Twitter for a few weeks and have already discovered a plethora of new academic tools that I have never heard about before. I believe that educators can connect on Twitter to share teaching strategies and find new technologies to implement in their lesson plans.
The digital divide is the inequality that students with a lower socioeconomic status face because they do not have access to the same technology as students with a higher SES. Students who do not have access to technology (either at home or in a public setting) generally perform lower on standardized tests and do not succeed in school. This is because they do not have the same access to technologies and softwares that students in higher SES brackets have. The leading cause of the digital divide is socioeconomic status. A family with a lower SES status will not be able to afford a home computer and will not live in a neighborhood with public access to computers. Another possible cause of the digital divide is a parent's refusal to allow a student to use the internet. There are many strict families in the United States that severely limit their children's access to the internet. This could be for moral, cultural, or religious reasons. These factors do not influence the digital divide as much as SES status does, but it is still important to be aware of these causes. As a teacher I believe that I would be suited to helping students cross the digital divide. My goal is to work at Title I schools, also known as at-risk schools, as a social science educator. I will likely have many students that lack access to computers. One way to combat this is by allowing students to choose between digital activities and on paper activities. This option means that students will not have to worry about finishing their homework without a computer. Another way that I could combat the digital divide would be to stay after school ends to work with students on school computers. This would give the student an option to develop their 21st century skills.
There are many types of software available for use in the classroom. I believe that I will be using presentation software, productivity software, and reference software the most in my classroom. I will be teaching twelfth grade history or government and it will be important for me to use these softwares with my students to keep up with the ELA technology standards. Presenting lesson plans for US history would be much easier if I had presentation software to display maps and graphics on. The integration of maps in to my curriculum would be very helpful to students that have issues with geography. Productivity software is the most important software that I will use in my classroom. As part of the social studies ELA standards, students need to be able to interpret graphs, charts, and data sets. The integration of database and spread sheet software will be essential to prepare my students for college. Word processing programs are also the most used tool in a classroom because it provides a way for teachers and students to communicate their thoughts in a clear, professional manner. I believe that reference software and academic databases will be very important in my classroom as well. I am planning on assigning research papers so that students will develop mastery in a specific area of my class. Reference softwares and databases are important for this project because they assist students in finding reputable sources. This also satisfies the ELA standard that mandates students to understand and verify sources.
The digital divide is the inequality that students with a lower socioeconomic status face because they do not have access to the same technology as students with a higher SES. Students who do not have access to technology (either at home or in a public setting) generally perform lower on standardized tests and do not succeed in school. This is because they do not have the same access to technologies and softwares that students in higher SES brackets have. The leading cause of the digital divide is socioeconomic status. A family with a lower SES status will not be able to afford a home computer and will not live in a neighborhood with public access to computers. Another possible cause of the digital divide is a parent's refusal to allow a student to use the internet. There are many strict families in the United States that severely limit their children's access to the internet. This could be for moral, cultural, or religious reasons. These factors do not influence the digital divide as much as SES status does, but it is still important to be aware of these causes. As a teacher I believe that I would be suited to helping students cross the digital divide. My goal is to work at Title I schools, also known as at-risk schools, as a social science educator. I will likely have many students that lack access to computers. One way to combat this is by allowing students to choose between digital activities and on paper activities. This option means that students will not have to worry about finishing their homework without a computer. Another way that I could combat the digital divide would be to stay after school ends to work with students on school computers. This would give the student an option to develop their 21st century skills.
There are many types of software available for use in the classroom. I believe that I will be using presentation software, productivity software, and reference software the most in my classroom. I will be teaching twelfth grade history or government and it will be important for me to use these softwares with my students to keep up with the ELA technology standards. Presenting lesson plans for US history would be much easier if I had presentation software to display maps and graphics on. The integration of maps in to my curriculum would be very helpful to students that have issues with geography. Productivity software is the most important software that I will use in my classroom. As part of the social studies ELA standards, students need to be able to interpret graphs, charts, and data sets. The integration of database and spread sheet software will be essential to prepare my students for college. Word processing programs are also the most used tool in a classroom because it provides a way for teachers and students to communicate their thoughts in a clear, professional manner. I believe that reference software and academic databases will be very important in my classroom as well. I am planning on assigning research papers so that students will develop mastery in a specific area of my class. Reference softwares and databases are important for this project because they assist students in finding reputable sources. This also satisfies the ELA standard that mandates students to understand and verify sources.
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