Journal #4

"National Technology Standards for Students" by tuchodi is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

    Ever since my late middle school years, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. At first, I didn't really care what grade level I taught as long as I was in a classroom, but as the years passed, I made the decision that my dream grade level is kindergarten. That's why I choose this grade level when looking at the ELA Technology Standards. I assumed that since the children are still so young, there are not as many ways to incorporate technology as there would be in a classroom for older students, and I was correct. The one standard that is listed has the students exploring through a variety of different technological tools for writing purposes in combination with their fellow students, with the help of adults. This just means to foster and create a writing skill using technology that can be built upon as they continue through the school system. I feel as though in this moment of time I would be able to implement this skill in a classroom, but not very effectively. I know of different programs, and I am proficient in the technologies that were listed in the matrix, but I am unsure on how I would actually break down an instructional period to teach it to a room of kindergarteners.  

    Using the CPALMS Educator Toolkit, I found multiple resources that focus on a kindergarten grade level approach to social studies, the subject of my choice. Many of them are lesson plans. The resource that I chose was a lesson plan titled 'Purpose and Particulars: Presidents' which focuses largely on research skills and writing. This plan has the students read through grade appropriate texts to find the similarities and differences and then work both independently and as a class to create a Venn diagram of what they found. Then as a class, they come up with ideas about what they learned in class in order to do an independent writing activity.  I would incorporate this lesson plan in my own classroom as part of a social studies lesson about the presidents, probably in accordance with President's Day, the national holiday. This would focus more on what a president does, and what past presidents did. This seems like a good way to incorporate a real-life event or celebration into an educational setting, with would hopefully add an interest in the students to participate.  

    Being a proficient internet searcher is a powerful tool for any educator. Being able to search efficiently and effectively allows for teachers to find solutions to problems in the classroom, stay up to date with new standards and technology, and find new areas to expand their PLN too.  Personally, out of all the new skills that were introduced this week, I think that the advanced search is the most useful tool, especially for an educator. This is because it allows for a much more specific search, in terms of finding answers that come from more trustworthy sources, as well as being able to filter out answers that are not necessarily associated with the topic one is looking for. Moving forward, I will most likely be using this the most, especially during my college career for papers and other research assignments. Seeing as how many of the skills that were introduced this week are very new to me, I don't really have any Internet searching skills to bring up. Most of my searching comprises of me entering a full question into the search bar and hoping for the best. I will definitely be utilizing these new techniques moving forward!

Journal #3

Copyright and Fair use are very prevalent on the minds of many educators.  In order to understand why these are a big deal, we must know what they really are.  Copyright allows for creators to protect their work from others stealing it and claiming it as their own.  This sets boundries with the general public about how they can use and appriciate other people's creations, however these boundries are not always crystal clear.  Many people may not be certian what constitutes as an infringement on a creator's copyright.  Creative Commons licenses allow for these boundries to be explicit.  However, people are still able to take parts of books and insert images from the internet into their own presentations.  This is where Fair use comes into play.  Fair use allows for people to duplicate other's work, but only with in reason and for non-profit use.  Fair use does not allow for someone to claim a work as their own or copy something and sell it.  With this knowledge, I would make sure to take care about what I am creating, both in terms of making sure to cite my sources, follow fair use guidlines, as well as using Creative Commons licensing for any original work that I can use in my classroom.  In doing so, I am able to share informative or instructional creations with fellow teachers, while staying in control of my copyright.  In terms of my students, I would make sure to approach this conversation in an age appropriate way.  The ages I wish to work with are kindergardeners, so I would make sure that they are thinking outside the box to create original work.  If they do have a form of inspiration, I would have them inform me or include in in whatever it is they are working on.  

While in other classrooms, these technology implementation issues may have a bigger impact, I feel as though many of them would not be as prevelent in my future classroom due to the young age of my future students.  With that being said, I can see a future where lack of funding and decreased productivity can be an issue.  I believe that the biggest obstacle for implementing technology in the classroom would be a lack of funding, due to the fact this this is already an issue many schools nationwide are struggling with.  In my case, I was fortunate to attened a school that had laptop carts so the students could do work online, but other schools are not so lucky.  If I do work at a school where this is a prevalent issue, I would have to have most of my work be on paper.  I don't think this is neccessarly a large issue as it allows for the students to work on fine motor skills, but it does limit the activites that I could use in order to enrich their learning environment.  A solution that I could use, would be to use or purchase my own personal technology and bring it to the school for the students to share under my supervision.  While this is not an idea I am particularly thrilled about, I do think it would be good to do every once and a while to switch things up.  This brings me to the issue of having decreased productivity in the classroom.  Seeing as how I intend to work with small children, this can be a frequent issue for me.  If the students are getting bored and tired of doing similar work, then they lose their drive to be productive.  By implementing technology, such as games, videos, and interactive websites, I am able to be more creative with the lessons and activites we participate in.  It also permits me to have more ease in switching up what we do, since its all in one place.  

Working on the newsletter assignment taught me many new skills with the Microsoft Word software.  I was unaware that there was so much you could do in that program, and seeing as how I enjoy using Google Docs for most of my assignments, there was a sharp learning curve in order for me to gain the skills to complete the newsletter.  A lot of it was just learning where everything was and what the icons meant.  It was an adjustment with having to learn to make the columns and page breaks so that the information I had written down didn't become distorted.  I also had to learn how to create the permission slip from scratch, as well as how to insert an image so that it could be placed freely amoungst the text.  I think I could improve my newsletter by not having it be so wordy, which is a common issue for me.  I also think that I could have included more pictures, but I wasn't sure if I had enough space.  The skills I learned while doing this assignment can be very useful in my future career.  They would be helpful when creating assignments and informative games, so that they are visually stimulating in order to decrease a lack of productivity in my future students. 

                                                                      

Journal #2

    As a student who grew up in a school system that was always trying to keep up with technology, I am very well versed in using Microsoft Word to complete written assignments for my classes.  I was introduced to the program in my later years of elementary school, and by the time I was in middle school, I was using it to write essays for my english classes and to format presentations.  I found it easy to use, but it was a little difficult to complete tasks in a group or to be able to access my work if I didn't bring the computer I wrote it on, or if I forgot my flashdrive at home.  That's why I transitioned to using a different word processing server, Google Docs.   Due to its similar nature to Microsoft Word, it was easy to convert over.  It was much more efficient for what I needed it for, especially because I could retrieve my assignments from any computer or even by using the Google Docs app on my phone.  This especially helped a lot when I had to finish writing essays on the bus on the way to school in the morning.  Even now I still prefer to use this software because I feel confident in my ability to use its features and I enjoy the ease of accessing my assignments without having to carry around a flash drive everywhere.     

    The standard from the ISTE Standards for Educators that stands out the most to me would be the Learner standard.  Even from the basic description of what this standard represents I feel as though this one aligns the most with my personal views of education, as well as my views on technology intermixed with education.  I believe deeply in continuing to expand the realm of 'Learning' from doing 12 years of schooling, and instead feel as though one should always try to learn and gather more information about things that they are passionate about in order to further the understanding and knowledge on said subject.  By educators regularly expanding their PLN and keeping up to date with new and improving technology, they are providing their students with a better opportunity to learn and build skills.  This benefits both the educator and the student as they both acquire more resources and opportunities that they may not have known about before or may not have had the skills to do.

    While the critics of Mark Prensky's idea of digital natives and digital immigrants may have a point in that the words can not be applied liberally, I do feel as though they can be applied to many people and situations in today's age.  I would infer that a majority of today's youth that do have access to technology do not know how to not only navigate it, but utilize it in a way to obtain whatever information they are looking for, due to the access that they had since early childhood.  Thus under the definition of being a 'native speaker', many people my age and younger would be considered digital natives.  I would say that the largest difference between being a digital native and a digital immigrant would be the ease in which a person can use technology, and this has definitely been apparent in my education.  I have had teachers that didn't even know how to pause a video on Youtube, let alone use updated technology to teach more informative, in-depth lessons.  In elementary school, there was a much larger effort to include technology such as through the use of Smart Boards in the classroom, as I got older these efforts began to disappear.  No classrooms in my middle and highschool buildings had these Smart Boards, and my teachers rarely tried to include technology in lessons unless it was using the laptop cart for a day to write essays on.  While I don't think this had a huge effect on my learning experience, I do think that by switching things up every once in a while would have caused me to become more engaged in the lessons being taught.  In terms of me and my future students, I don't believe there will be major differences seeing as how I am a digital native, which allows me grasp newer technologies quicker and easier, but I do think that since children are being introduced to technology at younger and younger ages, this will cause the classrooms to become much more centered around technology.  Newer educational technology may have to accommodate the children's understanding of how technology is used, such as through fun videos and educational games and apps.  Even so, I don't believe that there will be a large gap in the way my future students and I use technology.  

Journal #1

 Hi! My name is Isabele Hildy and I'm a freshman at FSU this year.  I'm majoring in Elementary Education.  I'm from Davie, Florida which is close to Ft. Lauderdale.  I have a three year old sister and a white crusty dog named Daisy back home.  I can't wait to go back home for the holidays to see them again.  

I would say that I have many years of experience with education technology.  In my elementary school, we would have short classes on how to use PowerPoint to make presentations for class.  I still remember the first time I had ever used the program by myself in order to create a presentation on the Atlantic Walrus.  In one of my middle school english classes, my teacher taught us how to use Google Sheets in order to create graphs and charts to include in our research assignments.  There are also different types of technology that has been available to me such as the huge interactive touch screens in our classes when I was a kid, and an interactive, touch screen table that my eighth grade math teacher let us use to play games about math.  

In terms of my own PLN, I would say that I use many resources for my variety of interests and commitments.  I love learning things about the music I listen to and the shows I watch, so I keep myself up to date by using social media sites such as Twitter, Tik Tok, and Youtube in order to see behind-the-scene footage of watch interviews of my favorite bands and actors.  For my academic responsabilites, I use sites such as Canvas, Snapchat, and Instagram to ask my instructors questions, participate in groupchats with my peers, and meet new people around the school.  These examples are all ways that I keep my PLN recent and expanding.