Education Tech Blog

I learned about many new teacher professional development tools through my efforts today. I posted about the professional networking site, LinkedIn. This professional social network allows for educators around the world to connect with one another and share resources. I also learned a lot from viewing other's bookmarks. One new tool I learned about was Lynda Tutorials. This website has a free trial window of thirty days and allows unlimited access to courses. This could help me gain required professional development credits that I will need to keep my teaching license.

There are many new adaptive technologies that are used to support learners with exceptionalities. Adaptive technologies are technologies that have features built in to them that are meant to help students with disabilities or impairments. They are used in schools to help students who have disabilities in school succeed. One example of an adaptive technology is recorded books. Recorded books are also called audiobooks and can help students that are blind or dyslexic. These books can be free and are used by school districts that lack funding. Another form of adaptive technology that can be used in the classroom are keyboard labels. Keyboard labels are adhesive labels that stick to keys on a keyboard and provide larger letters with higher contrast than regular keyboards. This adaptation helps students that have trouble distinguishing letters and numbers on keyboards. Another great technological adaptation is word processing software. Word processing software can be used by students who ha...

I learned a lot by using Diigo to explore new adaptive technologies. Bookmarking a resource that I found online to help students with disabilities was very useful. I bookmarked a keyboard label set. This set has very big 1" letters so that students who are visually impaired can use it with ease. I believe that if schools had more key labels then visually impaired children would be able to learn better. I also learned about culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in the group presentation. CLD students can benefit greatly from the increased use of technology in the classroom. The internet allows these students to immerse themselves in the English language in a patient, controlled environment. CLD students can also use the internet to research cultural aspects of their new home which creates a smooth transition. I also learned about different types of adaptive technologies when I was viewing other classmate's bookmarks. I learned about a variety of technologies ...

My experience with using Twitter as a personal learning network has been very positive so far. I have connected with many educational accounts including Edutopia, Eduporium, and Edublogs. This connection has made me feel more involved in the educational community. I have learned a lot from using Twitter as well. I have learned mostly from the account Edutopia. I have viewed many links that they shared about the new innovations in educational technology. I have also connected with educational gaming accounts. Classcraft is an educational program that allows learning in video game form. They have liked several of my tweets and I have tweeted to them a couple times. I also learned that using Twitter as a personal learning network is great in order to make connections for the future. I have not experienced any issues with Twitter so far. There have been no technical difficulties because the site is run very well. The Web Page Design assignment is a very useful assignment. I am still sett...

I learned about many new educational tools and how to improve my annotations on Diigo in the GICA on October 17. Sharing educational resources with my peers is very easy with Diigo and I am planning on using this when I become an educator. Many of my classmates left useful annotations on the website of a tool that I shared that will help our other peers use this tool. I learned about an awesome new tool called Google Docs from this in class assignment. I have used Google Docs to create documents before, however through the annotations provided I learned about the social aspect. Multiple students can be working on a document simultaneously through a link provided. This fosters team work opportunities for both teachers and students. The entire Google Suite has this collaborative function as well and I believe that it is groundbreaking.

Mrs. Smith's Class Website   with Jana Honoski Contrast: Overall the contrast was well done on the website. The font color was very readable because it was white font on a dark red background or red on an orange background. Repetition:  The website kept the theme constant. The entire website was themed to be a scroll with ink marks on it. All of the buttons on the website kept the same color scheme with a  white font on a dark red background . Alignment: All of the elements on the website are in alignment. There is a banner at the top of each section followed by resources that are formatted similarly. The alignments on each tab are constant throughout. Proximity:  The website did a poor job with proximity. There was a large blank space on the home page. At the bottom there was an email link that was not close to anything else.

I viewed a fifth grade science website for my assignment. Mrs. Smith is a fifth grade science teacher from Raleigh, NC and created her website with Weebly. She works at Harris Creek Elementary School. Much of her website was public. Her home page contained information that was pertinent to the lesson recently taught (I assume). This included links and embedded videos that related to nutrition. She had six other tabs on her website as well: homework videos, quizlets, websites, videos, study guides, and about me. She added an email link to the bottom of her website. All of her videos were embedded in to the site and all of her links were hyperlinked. I feel that this sets an example of ELA skills that children need to be successful. Her public information contained no information on her students, which I feel is good because it promotes internet safety.  Mrs. Smith's Website As a teacher I am planning on using technology to help me complete my professional responsibilities...

This week in class we did an activity with Diigo. I learned a lot of Web 2.0 topics through the use of social bookmarking. The first article that I read discussed the use of social media in schools. I learned about how social media has positive effects on students' understanding of subject material. I also read an article about the positive effects of having students blog. This article discussed how starting blogs in classes can drive a student to want to write more and proudly display their work. I read an article about the positive effects of MOOCs as well. I learned that MOOCs provide students with benefits that are not tangible and many MOOC students say that they expanded their minds through these courses.

The internet is an important resource in order to engage students in a controlled environment. There are two main classifications of web tools: Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Web 1.0 tools present information to users with little to no interaction, while Web 2.0 tools have interactive elements that engage users visiting the site. I believe that the most useful Web 2.0 tools for the classroom are Twitter, Diigo, and YouTube. Twitter is useful for both students and teachers because it allows them to create their own personal learning environment. Students using a class Twitter account have the ability to interact with foreign educators, political figures, and other important educational accounts to ask questions and develop a global perspective. This alternative learning style may help to engage students who get bored in lectures. Twitter is also a great tool for educators. Educators can connect with other educational professionals and create a large network with this site. We are already creating...

For my Individual Learning Project I chose to complete a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). I chose to complete Amnesty International's course: Human Rights: The Rights of Refugees . To access this course click  here . Course Description This course discusses the issues that refugees face in host countries and what citizens can do to become activists for this cause. The modules all centered around a different concept in refugee protection. Each module was made up of sub-quizzes, videos, and discussion questions. The sub-quizzes in each module served as practice for the end of module exams. The videos are very informative because they cover relevant topics are from Amnesty International. The discussion questions were my favorite part of the course because they allowed me to connect with students around the world and see new ideas about refugee protection. The end of the course contained an end of course exam and provided an option $49 certificate, which I did not get. Activi...

My embedded tweet is from Kelly Keith, I found her discovery of a lesson about natural disasters fascinating I enjoyed the lesson on natural disasters you presented in your #resourcecritqueactivity @kkeith_fsu #fsuedtech — Andrew Woodle (@ahw16c) October 6, 2017