Blog Post 8

       The technology advancement that I feel will be most crucial to future education is 3D printing. 3D printing will be helpful in classrooms because it can replicate learning tools that we do not have access to now such as replicas of organs, molecules, fossils, etc. Having 3D models will allows students to better understand and visualize the topic that they are studying. 3D printing would also be a great tool in art education because students can see replicas of other art pieces as well as seeing their own projects come to life in a physical form.
      One piece of technology that I believe will become big in future education is the flexible display feature. Smartphones are beginning to work on flexible display for some products but it has not truly hit the mainstream yet. I believe that flexible display will become big in classrooms because they are built to be more durable than regular screens which is good when working with young children. Also, flexible display note-taking may become big because it saves on paper and is super lightweight.
http://www.flexible-display.net/
       Within the digital divide, I am definitely on the side that has consistent access to technology. I have my own laptop, smartphone, and tablet and if anything breaks, I have easy access to public computers at the library as well. I use technology every single day both in the academic setting and personally. The divide will affect my classroom because I will have students who are very fluent in technology and have easy access to computers and other tools; but I will also have students who do not have that kind of consistent access and will not be as well versed in technology or Internet usage. I will address the divide by teaching technology in the classroom, allowing the students who are not as technical to catch up. I will try to avoid assigning take home work that involves a computer, but when I do, I will allow time in class or in a computer lab to work on it.       

Blog Post 7

        PowerPoint is a great tool that many teachers use on a daily basis in order to assist lesson plans and teach students new information. PowerPoint is a good tool to use when teaching according to Bloom's Taxonomy because it would be the most efficient way to convey multiple levels of understanding. For example, when teaching students about a book, the first focus could be on the basic plot and characters. Asking students questions like 'which character said what' would satisfy the remembering level of the taxonomy. The understanding level could be satisfied by the next slide asking questions about the students' opinion on the symbolism found in the book or their interpretation on the characters' interactions. The applying level would be satisfied by the next slide asking students to apply their outside knowledge to what they read about it in the book. A good question to ask would be, "how can you relate one of your own personal struggles to that of the main character?" The next slide in the PowerPoint would focus on analyzing the book. Students would be asked to analyze plot devices and development in order to better understand how the events in the book all related to one another to develop a coherent story. The next slide would evaluate the book. Was the book accurate in its facts? Was it historically accurate? Evaluate the time and setting when the book was published; how would it effect the story's initial introduction to the public? The last level of Bloom's Taxonomy is creating - students would be asked to create an alternative ending to the book in accordance to how they think the characters should have reacted. 

       Adaptive technology is specially made for students who need extra assistance in the classroom. Adaptive technology helps students who may be blind or deaf by catering to their needs and allowing them to complete tasks. Some examples of adaptive technology are screen magnifiers that assist people with low vision, a digital photo and reading device that takes a picture of a text and will then read it out loud to those who are blind. the fews cons that I can think of when it comes to having adaptive technology in the classroom is that its very costly and many schools do not have enough funding for necessary equipment. Teachers would also have to be trained on how to use the complicated technology which would take time away from them being in the classroom.
       Working the web design assignment taught me design skills. I had never made a website before this assignment but this assignment taught me how easy it can be with the right tools. Weebly made this project easy since it had easy-to-use layouts and tools that allowed me to design a professional looking web page. I liked this assignment since it was more fun than the usual project and it did not take up too much time. These skills I learned can be used in my future career because I now know how to design a webpage and that can come in handy.


http://dorwarteme2040.weebly.com/

Blog Post 6

        The school web pages that I checked out mostly included the same information. The school home page contained information on school wide events such as midterms, homecoming, athletic events, etc. The homepages also included links to school board sites, county information, and national links. Individual teacher sites contained calendars for homework, tests, and assignments that were specific to that class. Teachers also provided links to extra sources that would help their students with certain topics in that class. The school that I used was Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns County, Florida - my former high school.

       Technology is a crucial aspect in both my personal and (future) professional life. Technology makes easy, every day tasks even easier. Whether it's using Google to research a paper or simply look up movie times, technology makes life more efficient. Technology in the classroom is crucial for both research, but also for printing homework and tests. Microsoft Word makes creating assignments easier than if they were being created by hand. Chapter 7 also discussed electronic spreadsheets being a great tool for teachers to use in the classroom because it made tasks like charting and creating spreadsheets even better.

       The Web Resource Evaluation assignment helped me look at webpages with a new eye and a new appreciation. I go on websites every single day but I've never truly stopped to think about the authority or creation of these sites. This assignment helped me to realize that not all websites are created equally, some may be pretty but are not accurate and some may be accurate but are not pretty. Users need to find sites that appeal both aesthetically and factually. I thought that this assignment was a little more difficult to understand, just because the instructions were a little vague, which caused me to read through them many, many times. The website PBworks was also new to me so it took me a little time to truly learn how to utilize it.

Blog Post 5

     Web 2.0 tools that are extremely useful in the classroom include blogging sites, Twitter, and YouTube. Blogging sites allow teachers to have quick communication with all students at once, and also allow the students to send feedback right back to the teacher. Twitter allows instant communication between teachers and students as well. Twitter would be more useful for quick updates or reminders, while blogging would be used more for homework assignments and other extensive communication that would require more than 140 characters. Equipment that is necessary to use for computer education would be keyboards, a monitor, and a mouse.A useful piece of periphery equipment would a digital camera or a video camera. These tools would help students write blogs on current events, daily journals, science projects, etc. The most useful periphery tools, I believe, are tools that assist in the class room, such as speakers or projectors. These tools help create an all around learning experience in the classroom and allow students to better understand the lesson at hand.
      One Web 2.0 tool that would be useful in class would be the website Storybird. Storybird allows students to write and publish their own stories online. Students can share these stories with their fellow classmates, their teacher, and their family. Storybird encourages students' writing capabilities in a fun environment that makes them seem like "real writers" because they get to publish their story on the web.
      Storybird is a fun and safe tool to use for students because teachers can easily watch their students' progress. Parents can also monitor their children's work from any computer if they have the log in access. So they can watch their child's writing abilities progress, as well as watch the child's online safety and Internet habits.  http://storybird.com/
       From the concept map assignment I learned that creating a map is not easy. Not only is it difficult to actually figure out the tools and website necessary to physically construct the concept map, but it also requires thinking ahead and mental planning. Concept maps show how all the information is connected and the causes and effects of one piece of information on another. This requires the creator of the concept map to have to fully understand what causes what in order to make a legitimate concept map that could be helpful to others.

Blog Post 4

• Standard: SS.912.G.1 - Understand how to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technology to report information. http://www.cpalms.org/Public/PreviewIdea/Preview/858
• Website: http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
• Classification Tool: Academic Database
• Description: The CIA's World Factbook would be an useful tool to use in the classroom because students would have easy access to a variety of information that they can use for nearly any project, speech, or discussion.

      I support the use of Internet research in the classroom. Students can use the internet to search for nearly any topic and have easy assistance for tough or complicated topics. The Internet is full of academic sources that can be used for projects, papers, and many other assignments that students will encounter. The downside to having unlimited access to the Internet and all that it has to offer would be that students may become too dependent on the Internet. Students may stop truly thinking or trying when it comes to assignments because they know that they'll be able to look up the topic and get instant help. Students may also simply cheat and copy the information they find online without giving credit or critically thinking about the assignment at hand.

      I have used the Internet for homework and school work for as long as I can remember. The Internet makes research easier, but I always had to remember to look for credible sources. We've been told for our whole academic career that Wikipedia was not a reliable source, which forced us to continue our online hunt for credible sources that we would be able to cite. In high school I could simply use online sources as long as they were real, accurate, and able to be cited; but now in college I mainly only use sources that can be found through FSU'S online databases.

      The Web Hunt helped me learn how to better narrow my searches so that it will narrow my results to what I'm actually looking for, rather than all the irrelevant data. Not only do I now know what to actually type into the search bar, but now I am better at finding legitimate sites based on their ending (.com, .org, etc.) and the aesthetic of the page.


Web Hunt: - Find free websites for students to publish their own short stories
                   - Ask students to find primary source newspaper articles from the day they were born