#6 Schoolin Life

   On Jack D Gordon Elementary School's website, they have pages for each class. The one linked is the first grade page. They give information about what the student will go through in first grade then it explains what the students will learn. At the bottom of the page it has a supply list as well. It was actually very difficult for me to find"class pages" I really never heard of them.

   The podcast discusses teachers using blogs to accomplish the professional responsibilities I'll have as a teacher. It's a good way to connect with other teachers to share stories and idea to use in the classroom. 

    When in the Technology Sandbox a lot of pieces of technology looked like they'd be effective in the classroom. The Smartboards seem like they will be the most useful in an Elementary School classroom. It's the perfect way to present information to the student in a way where they can interact with the information given to them. It's easy to use and has a bunch of different features that will be helpful to them. The 3-D printer also had some features that could help a special needs classroom, like the brail dice, which was pretty cool.   

   Here's my project, I made an Inforgraphic:

Diigo- Web 2.0

    Through this activity I've learned that a lot of people encourage the use of social media in the classroom. My teachers always seemed very against even using phones in class, but reading each article and my fellow classmates comments, I see a lot of new and different ways that it can positively affect a classroom.

#5 Web 2.0 & MOOCs

    I think all the Web 2.0 tools would be effective in any classroom setting, because it helps create good communication between teachers and their students. We use twitter and blogs in our class and I feel like it has made us closer as a class and helped us share ideas with each other. I also think that if they weren't available learning would go on but it wouldn't be as efficient.

    I signed up for delicious and it was pretty easy to sign up for, but there were some sketchy ads. I think it could be very helpful in sharing helpful website for teachers and students. It was very easy to figure out and start using. I think that this will be very useful when I'm a teacher and trying to find different resources to help improve my teaching skills.

   I feel like massive open online courses(MOOCs) are the next big thing in education. I think there's a good chance that the future of education will be held in online courses and MOOCs can help those older students who aren't sure about what they want it do with their lives, explore different areas of interest. Frankly I think anything online that's school-related or not is going to become a big part of education in the near future.

Diigo!

   I learned that there are millions on online software that's available to teachers and students. We each had to bookmark two websites and rarely anybody bookmarked the same page. Diigo also showed me how teachers sharing bookmarks can save so much time and the teachers can put that extra time towards their students.

#4 Twitter, Divides, and Software

   I've had a twitter since the beginning of high school, but I've never been a big tweeter. When I found out I had to tweet for this class, I was a little worried because I didn't know if I'd be able to think of anything to actually tweet. I've been trying to tweet at least twice a week like we are supposed to, but sometimes I just don't know what to tweet. I've interacted with a couple of people from class by favoriting and retweeting them. Twitter may be helpful when I'm a teacher, as a way of communicating with my students and letting them communicate with each other.

   Digital divide created an actual divide between students. A digital divide is a gap that appears between students who can afford to use technology and student who can not. Some causes of digital divides are that technology is just so expensive. You would think it would be getting cheaper but it's still hard for some families to prepared their students. In my future classroom I hope to be able to bring the divide together. I never want one of my students to feel like they aren't being given the same opportunities as other students.

   Since I plan to teach Elementary School, my student are going to be using simpler technology. I feel like my student will be using tutorial software to introduce new material and possibly even using powerpoint and word, if I have old enough students. I really don't believe my students will be using graphic design software or draw programs. Elementary school students would probably be using adventure and educational games. I remember doing games like that when I was in elementary school, and I feel like it's a vital part of learning.

   The E course was pretty cool. I felt like it was easy to read and listen too. Some of the questions confused me but I don't think it has to do with the set-up of the E course. I really liked the whole idea of an E course, it was a fun way of learning information.

#3 Let's get Techy

   When looking at the ELA technology standards, I feel like I have a good foundation of information. I didn't read anything and worry that I'd never know how to do it. Like when it says incorporate graphs and charts, I know how to do a simple graph or chart, but I'm not gonna always want to do the easiest or simplest charts, so I still need to learn.

   Since I'd like to teach younger Elementary School students (1st/2nd grade) there is going to be a limit of what technology I can have my students use. In this day and age younger kids are very capable of using technology but I don't think they are going to be using the same websites and programs as high schoolers. I'm most likely going to be using pictures, videos, and audios in my classroom to help enhance my teaching. Maybe I could even have my students run a blog each week to work on their typing skills. When it comes to digital citizenship concepts, I'm probably going to have to really enforce them because younger children tend to not understand how mean their words can be. I also will have to teach them how to "protect their personal identities and those of others" to make sure they aren't getting themselves into trouble.
 
   "Open" terms include, open education, open content, and open sources. Teachers use all of these as a way of sharing information and ideas. If you go to this website you can search for what open education resources are available. It's pretty cool to browse through. I also read through this website to extend some of the information explained to us in the podcast. It talks about how some open sources may be difficult to use. For example it may be difficult to remix a scanned handwritten document in order to use it. You need to "make technical choices that enable the greatest number of people possible to engage".
 
   Making this newsletter was probably the most fun I've ever had while doing a college assignment. I learned how I can incorporate graphics with each little section of my newsletter as well as how to make a little slip to cut off at the bottom. Next time I want it to be a little more visibly pleasing, because I feel like there is a lot of white on mine, but overall I'm pretty proud of it. I'm excited to make real ones for my future classroom.