OPTIONAL Digital Blog Post #B - Chapters 2 &/or 5

I am slowly learning that there is more to technology in the education field than I ever could have imagined. In chapter 2 of our textbooks there were many aspects that I found interesting and complexing. Today in my blood I will reflect on three of the concepts I found interesting. 

1.  My first concept that I will be the different types of advanced applications that are being used in classrooms across the nation. According to our textbook between 2010 and 2012 there were over 25 billion apps downloaded. Since this information is a little dated and the amount of involvement on technology has increased I am willing to bet that this number has increased greatly in the past 4 years. I found it extremely interesting that there are apps for History and shows virtual timelines of our history. This brings the saying "going back in time" to a whole new level! By integrating history into technology we are now giving it new life and showing it in a more interesting way to students. I strongly agree with using applications in a class room do to this. I believe that by using apps that bring things to life for students it will in return show a higher success rate with in the students. 
2. My 2nd concept I will reflect on is the Digital Divides. Digital divides are a growing problem that I believe needs to be solved as soon as possible. Coming from a place of understanding, I was born and raised in the middle of no where, our school was low income almost of our families were as well. Due to this, when I moved to college I had a little bit of a harder time adjusting to all of the different ways technology is used. With as fast as our technological world is moving this disadvantage could one day become a life altering issue that could prevent students from wanting to continue education or could discourage them from certain jobs. Of course, I am thing of the worst case scenario but it is still a scenario that could happen if we, the futures educators do not find a way to equal out the disadvantages.

My 3rd concept I would like to reflect on are TED talks. Although this was a small excerpt in chapter 2 I found it very important. I am a huge fan of TED talks due to the fact that I am an Audio and Visual Learner. I would like to see these in our course because of how well I do with relating them to lessons. I feel that other students, even younger ones could benefit from these videos just as I do.

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dpYl5Mgtmuz/?mode=presentation#/

Resources


Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Digital Blog Post #A- Chapter 1

1. My first concept I will be discussing is the iGeneration. Being not far ahead of this generation I find it amazing as well as scary that these children have never been in a world that hasn't been saturated with some form of technology in their life. On a positive note, these children will be effective students and successful as the world continues to advance. Due to their background of constant technology I feel as though these students will always easily adapt to the newest form offered on the market.  I,myself, was not have a phone until I was 11, and didn't have a smartphone until I was 15 or 16. I still find myself struggling with new areas in technology. However, theses children have never learned how to do things manually and that could be very bad if one day our nation, for some reason goes off the grid. According to the textbooks 95% of students ages 12-17 are online and 85% of those students use social media websites such as 
2. The second concept I will reflect on are the Technology-Based Libraries.  We live in a time period where everything is at the touch of our fingertips. At one point in history, the tools we have today were not even though about in the wildest of dreams.  Today, not only do we have the technology to learn about but we have a plethora of resources at the touch of a finger. I am a nerd when it comes to books and research so it is no surprise that I am a fan of valuable information instantaneously.
3. The third concept I will reflect on are technology-based offices. This was probably my favorite concept in this chapter. I find it amazing that teachers can now condense grade books,attendance records, lesson plans, and calendars, to a laptop or tablet. Not only will this keep the desk organized but I feel it will take stress off of the teacher. With out having to keep track of 4 or five different books and papers they can open a computer and have all of their information in one nice and neat place. I believe this will benefit teachers and change the ways of teaching forever.  I know in my ESE classroom I volunteer in at home the teachers life has become much easier due to a new tool called the Class Dojo.

In conclusion, There are many aspects of technology that are changing people and the way we communicate and learn. All aspects contribute to the future of education and how we learn and how some of us will teach. The students we teach and the technology we use to teach them are all important things to think about.

Resources


Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

ClassDojo,(2012,Aust,22)Introduction to Class Dojo [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaeNSYJvrn0]