The Story

For my project, I did a Lynda.com course on Keynote for Educators. It went through why teachers should use Keynote if they have an IOS product, like I do, and how to use action buttons for an interactive tool. Also, it went over how to use Keynote for a flipped classroom, or teaching outside classroom hours and reinforcing activities during class time, with the feature of being able to record yourself over slides to create a short video. Finally, the video went over how students can use Keynote, with using it to assess students through presentations or having them create a flipped classroom lesson themselves. Overall, this course taught me some features Keynote that I can use on my laptop as a future educator and why it is an effective educational tool. The VoiceThread summary can be found here .

Initially, Diigo seems like the best resource for collaboration and research. When learning how to save the social bookmarking website in class, I was surprised that there were different groups that you could share information with. Knowing that Diigo is a good tool to use, I am excited for future assignments, both in class and out, that require collaboration on different websites. Also, I like how it keeps track of who has commented and when people post the same website. It keeps an organization level that is really appealing, so I will definitely use it more often. Furthermore, I am especially intrigued by the feature that allows you to annotate  the resources that you have found. I am looking forward to this feature because in my past experiences of researching, it can be very hard to remember what every source you read was about, so I had annotations everywhere within my computer. All in all, I like t...

With these first few weeks of using Twitter, especially it being the first time I have ever had a twitter account, I can honestly say that I am enjoying all the information that is available to me. I have followed many, many educators that have first-hand experience with their teaching classrooms, and politicians who are very informed with educational policy. I am learning about different aspects of my chosen profession that I didn't even knew existed. Mostly, I have been interacting with Vicki Davis, a woman who has her own blog called "Cool Cat Teacher." I haven't had direct interaction with her, but I have retweeted some of her things because they are just so insightful. For example, she blogged about the idea of being childlike instead of childish, which was very interesting to me because I had never tried to separate the two ideas before, but she gave an excellent description and used her experiences in the classroom to help her case. Also, she tweets about oth...

For a second grade class, I feel most prepared for standard LAFS.2.L.3.4. This standard states that technology must be known for finding the meaning of unknown words; in a sense, it is the knowing how to use technology as a dictionary. Furthermore, this standard also ensures that students know how to change words from their root, but that they also know it is still, essentially, the same word. I feel very prepared for this standard because ever sense technology was implemented into my elementary classroom, this is something that my peers and I have been doing for a very long time. I can easily give my students the resources they need to use the internet as both a dictionary and thesaurus and give them practice worksheets of looking up words, defining them, and finding root words. Another standard that I feel comfortable with is standard LAFS.2.W.2.6. This standard uses digital ...

As a student, Word was heavily focused on for learning how to use it in my technology classes. When I was younger, I would use it to print out pictures or practice paragraphs. As I grew up, Word grew up with me by becoming more accessible, more technologically advanced, and provided more tools to create more than just an essay document. I have used Word to write papers, to create activity sheets, to make flyers, and to make checklists. Moreover, I have seen my teachers use word mostly to create tests and quizzes. Word allows an educator to keep a very organized structure, and teachers can change a part of the document with ease, so most of my teachers have used Word as the go-to software. Also, my earlier teachers used Word to create worksheets for the elementary class setting. Again, the software supports a structured document, and it is relatively easy to use. Being the editor-in-chief of my high school yearbook, I ran into a lot of copyright issues when trying to add graphics to p...

For ISTE standard four, Innovative Designer, I focused on resources that will help with the brainstorming process, a key element in innovation. I found this website, Stormboard , that allows students and teachers to collaborate on ideas. It is free for educators, and through the educator it is also free for students. I think that this website will help students be Innovative Designers because it creates an easy atmosphere for students to put ideas down, and the class can look at the thought process as a whole and comment on each others work with ideas of their own. Furthermore, I think that this tool would be ideal in a high school setting because it does require an email and is a little advanced, but other grades could use it if the teacher thinks it fits into the class.

Using technology in the classroom is becoming more of a norm as the years continue on. As technology becomes more accessible to the common citizen, I believe that its availability influences teachers and students to use it in the classroom. Students are learning how to use a vital tool that will help them in whatever career path they choose, and teachers can use it to make the content more interesting for students and hold their attention for longer periods of time. Also, technology can fill gaps that teachers may have. Students always have questions that teachers do not know the answer to, and technology makes answers to those questions easy to come by. The ISTE standards for students and teachers are very realistic when relating it back to today's society. The standards are reachable for both groups, but they're not too easy to achieve. Each standard provokes thought and desire in people to want to absorb all that technology can teach them. Specifically, I find the teacher ...