Blog #5

With technology evolving and the ELA standards enforcing the use of technology in the classroom it is eminent that teachers know and understand how they work.  I think all web 2.0 resources are useful in their own way but all of them bare the risk of student safety.  For example twitter is a great way for students to keep up to date with news and peoples thoughts on national issues; but twitter only provides snippets of information and that can lead to students not having the whole story and misguided views.  Another web 2.0 resources that is very effective in teaching is YouTube. YouTube allows you to go beyond only talking about the subject you are teaching and it allows you to show your students visual representations of the subject matter. Although YouTube is a great teaching tool student safety is also a concern here whether it be misguided information, or inappropriate information for the age group, or sensitive topics. So as a teacher you need to be aware of that and try limit that as much as possible. Both web 2.0 resources I describe do not need peripherals since you can access them off the web.

A web 2.0 tool that I find interesting and that I would use in the classroom would be Diigo. Diigo is not only a great way to get students their own online audience and platform, but it is a great way to get students thinking. Diigo provides blogs for students to be able to develop and portray their ideas in a safe way. Diigo also allows online interaction for peers to give constructive criticism or comment on how great your post was.

Another great way to use Diigo in the classroom is for in class discussion and analysis of research papers or other online material.  Diigo allows you to go through research or reading material and make your own sticky notes, outliners, and allows you to share your thoughts with your peers. Again Diigo serves as great tool to not only see what your students think about the assignment topic but to gauge their level if understanding and knowledge based on their analysis. This provides a great platform for teacher to evaluates students and see who needs help and who us making great use of the technology. If you are interested in how Diigo works and possibly using it click here.

The concept map was a really helpful assignment in terms of organizing ideas. I think this helps for prospective teachers because it helps narrow down your thoughts in an organize matter and be able to reach your main points. I think the most under looked but most useful thing in my opinion is the simplicity of concept maps. It allows you to follow an idea or a topic in fast and effective way and in my opinion that is the best way to engage students.

blog post #3

As a college student I spend most of my time either solving some complex accounting problem or deciphering some text of information and giving my educated opinion on the topic. The majority of the time I am focused on non fiction writing. I feel like I am most suited to teach students the standard that deals with non-fiction reading and development of reading analysis with in the class room.  I am looking forward to learning more about the speech standard and being able to formulate opinion in a verbal but educate manner.

When I become a instructor I want to be able to teach college students. At this level I think the programs and software most appropriate for the education level is google as a search engine, google drive, and google drop box. As a college student you will be thrown a lot of information and ask about a lot of topics some familiar and some unfamiliar. Google search engine is there to help with the unfamiliar items and give you a web full of resources on that topic. Furthermore, you will have assignments and a lot of different information give to you and some of it you would like to keep that is where good drive comes in. It is a easy, fast, and safe way to store your information and data which is a major key when you are a college student. Lastly google drop box one of the best way to get information is by sharing information. Most college students rely on each other to succeed both inside the classroom and outside and a convenient way to share information is Google drop box.

When working on the newsletter I saw from a first hand experience what being a teacher feels like. I got to see how complicated it is to make something engaging and informative at the same time, and how to differentiate from important topics to not so important topics. I learned with this assignment that organization is key in a newsletter if you want it to do is intended purpose. What I did not like about the assignment is that it was very graphic based instead of information based. Although the graphics are important the text Is what the parents will read and it deserves more emphasis. In my future career I will make sure to devote enough time for newsletters so that I may have time to critically think about the positioning of my things in my newsletter and if they will achieve my desire results from a educational and psychological perspective.

blog post #2

As a student Microsoft word is used for everything from syllabus to research paper. It is one of the most popular application used by all students across all majors. The reason it is so popular is because of its diversity and different ways it can be used. You can use it for email purposes, letters, papers, graphs, and the list continues. Teachers also hugely benefit from Microsoft words as they use is for lesson plans, to post assignments and to also make their yearly syllabus.

Copyright is big issue now days because of the internet and the access to information that we have. As a student and as a teacher the rule of thumbs I will use is if its questionable whether it falls with in the fair use doctrine then cite it.  When I being my profession as a teacher I will always strive to do original but I will not shy away from online resources created by other instructors if I believe it will be beneficial to my students. I will always have the students best interest and find the best available tools to enhance their educations. As I plan on using online resources to better their education I will not limit my students from using technology from improving their work. But I will implement very strict repercussions if copyright issue do arise. I will make sure to spend a whole day going over copy right issue and what ways to effectively use the information available to us with out fringing upon others rights.

I learned that twitter is very powerful tool in that I can provide a huge amount of information and can connect millions of people from all over the world. So not only is there a mass amount of information it is also a way to reach the world. Twitter is a great resource to get news and stay informed with world problems. I say it is a great resource because it should not be the only place where you get news from. I will definitely use twitter and other personal learning networks in my future class rooms because it enhances creativity and critical thinking and I think that is a great thing to have.