Blog Journal #10

I think that I will use the Excel tools with grading, especially if my school doesn't have some sort of automated system. As for data collection surveys, I've previously mentioned using surveys at the beginning of the year to find out about technology availability for students. To be specific about my subject matter is a bit harder, I can't really think of anything history specific reasoning for needing to use Excel tools, there's very little if any at all math or numbers in history (besides dates). So besides generic teaching functions, I can't quite name a subject specific task.

I think what was most interesting from my classmates' blogs is the different resources we've mentioned and used. For example, Nick's Google Classroom for ILP#1 was my very first interaction with that platform, and the layout seemed so user- friendly that I decided to make a Google Classroom for my ILP#2. I think it's interesting how we've all used such different platforms and websites that are similar to each other, especially when so many of us went to schools within the same state. I think it's really cool to see the variety that we've learned before coming here. 

A technology related skill I would really like to learn is how to use 3D pens and printers. I think they're so so so cool, and I had a great time messing around with them in the Tech Sandbox. I think there's also a lot of great potential for history lessons with 3D printers, we could make amazing models of historical places like the Globe theatre, or show what early inventions looked like in a life size model. I hope that University of South Florida has an environment like the FSU Tech Sandbox so that I can continue my path of learning about these items.

ILP #2 Design! Google Classroom

https://voicethread.com/share/12397211/

I created a google classroom for an AP American History course. I created multiple assignments, and added a course calendar!

Qualtrics Survey!

Here's my survey!


I love history, and want to know how you guys feel about it!

Blog Journal #9

The flipped classroom is sort of like learning on your own, and then having having class be more of a study hall/ practice time. It's when the teacher tasks the student with learning the material on their own, usually with the help of an online guided lesson, and then when they come into class they have more time for discussion and practice of the learned material. It gives room to allow more fluid development of some skills, but it doesn't work for every student type. Personally, I'm not a fan of flipped classrooms, but it depends on the subject. For stem related courses, I was never comfortable with them because it's hard to develop a full understanding with a guiding hand. However, for history classes I think it's a bit different. It's somewhat needed for students to do their own researching and learning for certain topics, especially if you're in a current events class, that way the discussions can be uninterrupted and have as many different voices as possible. 

Open educational resources are a teachers best friend. They're, usually, websites that have resources for teachers to use, free of charge and with the availability of editing and personalizing. They're a commons for coursework, and a lot of it is teachers helping teachers. HelpTeaching is an OER I found online, however I'm not 100% sure if it's totally an OER because there is a small fee.   * edit - HelpTeaching is actually free, both membership wise and material wise, I just misread it. It offers educators many, many different things, such as tests, lesson plans, activity sheets. This includes a "test maker" and a way to actually test your students online.

I loved doing the powerpoint assignments. Well, more specifically I loved the second one, I had a lot of trouble with the first. I never knew any of the stuff we learned for assignment 5, I think it was super cool. Being able to make powerpoints a bit more interactive is definitely something I plan on doing as a teacher. Many of my past teachers had made Jeopardy style games, like the one I did, and I'm glad I've learned just how much hard work goes into them. I originally wanted to make an "Oregon Trail" style game, but I felt like it wouldn't have been original enough. The main thing I disliked about these two projects was that I can't do them on my laptop, because it's a Chromebook. I had to spend hours borrowing the laptops from the library, and I felt like it wasn't completely reliable. 

Blog Journal #8

I've learned a lot using Diigo this semester. I went from having never heard of it, to using it with some ease. I've learned about what social bookmarking is, how to keep different bookmarks together by type/ subject, and a way to remind myself why exactly I bookmarked a page. Diigo could be useful in the future in my classroom, especially as a way to keep me organized. I think Diigo would also be helpful in meetings, because it's like an online note reminder.

You could use powerpoint to support student learning in each level of Bloom's Taxonomy pretty easily.I don't quite understand this question, but I'll try my best to answer. For remember, you set up a list of vocabulary words on the first page, then sprinkle them in through out the lesson. For understand, you could have the definitions to the vocab words appear after they click on a certain thing, to see if they were right. For apply, a matching game could be set up, similar to the choose your own adventure game from class this morning. For analyze, a compare and contrast venn diagram could be set. I'm actually not sure how you could for evaluate, but for create you could assign the student to create their lesson powerpoint for the subject. 

A lot of teacher professional development is done using technology, especially in urban areas with a lot of wealthy families. EdTech is a magazine / website that focuses on technology and problems surrounding it and how it affects teachers and the education system. It's updated frequently, and is a trust worthy source of information for educators. 

Blog Journal #7

My experience with Twitter so far has been very banal. I see the appeal for some teachers, especially for those that want to have a more online presence within their classrooms but for myself personally I do not see myself using it professionally. I can never quite figure out what tone is appropriate, or if what I'm tweeting is even worth tweeting. Overall the social media website just gives me feelings of dread and anxiety. 

Working on the Web Design assignment was super fun! I never realized it was so easy to create a website, I can definitely see myself using Weebly in the future. There honestly wasn't much I disliked about the process, it felt really clear and direct with me. I'm afraid my website personally is a bit bland in terms of designs, but I hope to use the revision token to spice it up, this time around I had some personal issues that kept me from truly utilizing the resource. Link to my website here! 

Assistive and adaptive technologies are some of the best technological advances we've had. It's really cool that we have so many ways to be inclusive in our modern classrooms, I just wish that they were more cost-friendly. A lot of the newer, and nicer, examples we have are out of budget for the average school. An example of an assistive technology I've gotten to use is a VRS (video relay service) that I learned how to use in my high school ASL class. 

Blog Journal #6

None of my teachers at my previous schools had websites, and I had a lot of trouble finding ones that were pertinent to my planned career path as a history teacher. However I did find one, Mr.R's Classroom. His website includes overviews of the class, different sections of their lectures, class syllabi, and grading breakdown. I think his website is nicely set up, it doesn't make my eyes hurt to view. It is from Baldwin High School and is for 9th and 10th grade. 

I'll probably have my own classroom website, because I love being organized and the less paper we use the better! I can't say for certain what types or amounts of technology I'll be able to use in my classroom, because I would prefer to work in a rural area and those areas are usually less funded and have less access to the types of technologies that more affluent schools would. 

The VR devices in the Tech Sandbox were so cool! They were also the one technology I could clearly see myself using in my classroom if I were given the opportunity. It would be a really cool way to let students experience areas of major historical significance, like the Colosseum or Tower of London. I'm sure there are programs that someone has/ or will made that will also enable people to do walkthroughs of major historical events/ places that are no longer accessible, such as the Titanic. 

ILP Participation - Leading With Emotional Intelligence

I watched a Lynda tutorial about emotional intelligence in the business world, but I felt like it was also really applicable for teachers. It was a five part course, and each section focused on different ways to be an effective leader and to utilize your emotional intelligence in the work setting.

You can access my voicethread here

Blog Journal #5

This class is my first exposure to Diigo, but it slightly reminds me of Pinterest. I don't really like Diigo, but that will probably change ever time as I develop more of a need and use for it. I think it could be more user friendly, and designed in a more pleasant way. The way it is structured is just a bit harsh to me, and is really industrial.

I was excited to know that we would be blogging in this class. I was actually considering making a personal blog recently, but was unsure about it. I really enjoy the structure around what we need to post, and I like that Ms. Ginny gives us an opportunity to be personal as well as complete the assignment. The only part I struggle with is when we have to comment in class, but that's more so because I just never know what to say, haha. Another thing I struggle with is the formatting though, it always comes out weird. 

Pinterest is a Web 2.0 tool I think I would use a lot while teaching. I think it could be considered a social bookmarking tool, like Diigo. I know a lot of teachers currently use Pinterest, also. I like it because you can sort different pages, that you "pin" to your personal account. It also allows you to view and follow others that have the same interests as you, but it's not a "social media" type exchange like on Facebook or Instagram, it's more of an idea exchange.

Blog Journal #4

My first experiences using twitter was doing my freshman year, when another student and I were running a "corn" appreciation twitter, for a project about Big Agriculture vs. small town farms. During the twitter for this class I have interacted with a few of my classmates, but I won't lie, I have trouble thinking of things to tweet out because I don't really like / use the platform in my personal life. Twitter could be helpful in my future career as an educator, but I'm not sure if it would even be relevant anymore by the time I become a teacher.

The digital divide not only affects academic success within schools, but it can also lead to personal feelings of negativity and the feeling of not being as good as others. It can lead into being unprepared for college, or the workforce, and can even develop into being inept on social media platforms. The digital divide is more than just an economic issue. It's also caused by the inaccessibility of Internet in rural areas, or older communities. As a teacher, I think I will be more aware of the digital divide within my walls, and be as accommodating as possible to those without reliable access to Internet off school grounds. Not a lot of history is done using technology though, so I'm confident my teaching and lessons won't suffer a student without that access. 

Some software I think would be good to introduce and implement into my classroom would be Photo shop, and Microsoft. I think not only could it advance students grasp of some concepts, but it will also be a good exercise in preparing them for college. For photoshop, a specific project they could do would be to design their own war propaganda posters, like the Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter ones. For Microsoft, I could easily assign any number of essays or powerpoints on multiple topics. I think it's important for teachers to lay groundwork that will help students build their skills in the future, and prepare them for the more advanced things they may encounter.

Blog Journal #2

I actually didn't use MS word as a student until last semester for my ENC2135 class. Throughout high school I always used Google Docs, I didn't even know we were given Microsoft for free until my roommate told me about it. But, beginning this past fall, my experience with MS Word has been pretty blasé. I definitely prefer Google Docs for essays, because MS Word is kind of confusing for me. As for my teachers, I'm not sure of their usage with Word, I'm fairly certain they did use it, I just genuinely can't think of any time when I've seen it.

I've definitely, as a student, seen and heard my teachers talk about fair use materials within the classroom, especially when it comes to watching movies or using a specific template for an assignment. I once had a teacher plan to have us play a game that was designed to assist in our understanding of medieval feudal systems, and then have to cancel the lesson surrounding the activity because she couldn't get access to it for wide scale use. There are a lot of great resources online for teachers now though, especially ones that are made for teachers by other teachers, that supply access to different activities, ideas, lesson plans, etc. When I become a teacher I plan to take full advantage of these types of resources, and also educate my students on this type of thing because I didn't fully understand it until this class.

To make sure that in my classroom the rules of Internet etiquette were maintained, and no cyber bullying was taking place, I would make sure that any work done online, especially collaborative work, was done during the classroom hours when I could make sure that students weren't taking advantage of each other, I would also make sure they filled out partnership reviews, so that if there were a situation and they felt uncomfortable saying anything during class I would be able to find out. This also applies to working with the Digital Divide. As a student who never had access to at home internet/ computer, I was always very frustrated when teachers would give last minute online homework or projects, because I wasn't guaranteed a ride to the local library, or if it were Monday, the library wasn't even open at all. I think it's important in the beginning of the school year to have students fill out accessibility cards, I've had a few teachers do that in the past, and then I would know if the class was fully capable of online work or if I needed to do alternate assignments. As for academic dishonesty, I think TurnItIn is a great resource and I would fully utilize it in my classroom.

Blog Journal #1

I think the main influencers of students and teachers in classroom technology are the general public. I think how people interact with technology outside of the classroom is a big indicator of how people will interact with inside of the classroom. The more immersive technology becomes in our every day livelihoods, the more common it will become in the average classroom.                                                                                                                                                                I really like the ISTE standards, especially the first one for students. I have never heard of this organization before and I loved the information about it! The first standard for students was to become an "empowered learner". I think it is super important for students to learn to take control of their own education and that using technology is a great instrument to do this with! One of the standards that I myself could use some work on is being a "computational thinker". Growing up without computers and cell phones, I'm currently in the process of learning what I can, as quickly as I can. :)                                                                                                            

I disagree with the term "digital native" for our (my) generation, solely because it is way to broad a term to use. Many, if not most, of my peers weren't as subjected to technology as today's children are, however I do see where the point is that they're trying to make when they say "digital native". I know from my later years in high school that many older teachers, and quite a few younger ones, had trouble with the technology in our classrooms, but a lot of it had to do with no formal training in it. Our schools IT and computer resource officers were nearly always much older, so I think it's different for everyone.  I can only assume that in the future I'll be begging my students to show me how to turn on whatever recent update we have for projectors though, and of course they'll grumble about my incompetence. 

* edited because of formatting errors

ISTE Empowered Learner Resource

College Board is a website that's designed to help high school students take control of planning their academic future. It has all kinds of resources attached to it, such as Khan academy videos, and descriptions of nearly every University in the United States. College Board would be a good resource for students looking to work on the first ISTE standard for students, because it has students pick out a "map" for their academic success which is a good way to keep them on track. College Board also will supply students with opportunities to reach out to people who can advise them in educational settings. I used this resource a lot as a high school student.
To go the website, please click here!

Blog Journal 0 "Blog Setup / Intro"

Hi! I'm Penny, and I'm a freshman at Florida State University. I'm originally from a small town smack-dab in the middle of Florida called Mascotte, however I've lived in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and West Virginia, and currently I reside near Tampa, Fl. My intended major is Social Science Education, and hopefully a minor in Museum Studies. I'm very excited to be here as I'm the first person in my family to not only go to college, but also graduate high school. I love all things history related, but my favorite periods are the Industrial Revolution, and the 1800s in general.

My prior experiences using technology in an educational setting include using computers/ laptops throughout high school and middle school, and a computer literacy class in middle school. I went to school in a poorer area early on so I didn't really experience the type of technology we have in schools now, until high school. During high school, our technology usage was often for research for projects, or for review games such as Kahoot. During the previous semester I learned about the research tools and technologies available to us students through the university and library system. 

In the upcoming semester I hope to learn how to competently use the technologies commonly found in classrooms. I also want to learn more about incorporating technology into learning in general, because I think it's really interesting. Coming from my background, I want to learn how/if they will be utilized in under-served communities, or kept for mainly private schools. I hope this class will prepare me for my future as an educator.