Post #10

If I were a teacher for a 9th grade Geography class, I would use data collection such as surveys as feedback from my students on lessons that are taught throughout the week. In the survey I would ask questions such as "How did the activities we worked on in class relate to the topic of the lesson?", "Which part of the lesson helped you best understand the lesson?" and "What changes should be implemented in the next lesson?". I could also use tools such as Excel to report students attendance, grades, and class averages on assignments and exams.

The topic that I found most interesting when reviewing my classmate's blogs were the ILP projects. I could tell that my classmates put a lot of time and thought into their projects. Between the ILP projects and PowerPoint assignments 5 and 6, I learned so many different ways to use PowerPoint. For example, in one of my classmates ILP projects she used PowerPoint slides as a time-lapse for a art project she was working on. Another example is enhancing the quality of PowerPoint Slides by using less words on slides and downloading PowerPoint templates from the internet. Lastly, using PowerPoint to make interactive games for students to quiz students on content material.

A technology-related skill I would like to learn next is how to start a Vlog on YouTube. There are so many YouTube channels of interesting Vlogs with cool graphics and background music, where average individuals become internet sensations by video recording their daily lives. Vloggers on YouTube have thousands of subscribers, and I think it would be cool to learn about the do's and don'ts of Vlogging, and understanding what makes a Vlog popular and interesting to others.
Link to a Popular YouTube Vlog

Survey - Fun Facts

Fun Fact Survey

Post #9

The Flipped Classroom is an instructional design where teachers have changed the teaching style from lecturing in front of a classroom and having students work on the content material for homework, to providing video lectures for students to listen to as homework before class.
This "flipped" method originally was implemented to help absent students stay up-to-date with class material, but now allows teachers to redefine how they use their time in the classroom setting with all students.
 According to chapter 10 in the class textbook, "During class time, students work with content in group or individual activities and with their teacher, clarifying and deepening content understanding. In this model, the teacher’s role changes from 'sage on the stage' to 'guide on the side'" (Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2015, p.238). 
Flipped Classroom Model

The skill I have acquired from working on both PowerPoint assignments was being able to use PowerPoint in a non-traditional way.
Before being assigned the first PowerPoint assignment, I have never made such a high quality PowerPoint before. I have always wondered where presenters would get cool layouts for PowerPoint presentations. But after completing the assignment I found a great deal of resources that helped me enhance my PowerPoint design.
Another skill I have acquired was converting the PowerPoint into a show. Before this assignment I have never used the speaker note section, and the majority of the points I needed to make were written word for word on the PowerPoint slide.
 Recording my voice over the slides made understanding the PowerPoint more effective, and I will be using this feature from now on. I didn't like that I was having technical difficulties when attempting to record the slideshow from my Mac computer. I ended up having to complete the assignment on a different computer.
The skills I acquired in the second assignment was making an interactive game using PowerPoint. Before this assignment I didn't even know it was possible. It was a little difficult to put together but I enjoyed it a lot.

Diigo #5

What I liked about Diigo is that I am able to use this tool in more than one aspect of my life. Initially I used Diigo just to get a grade for in class assignments, but each week I learned to appreciate new features of Diigo such as annotating and bookmarking, that I now use in other classes, and the social networking component, where I can read bookmarked articles, blogs, and find new websites in relation to my Higher Ed professional interest. What I do not like about Diigo is the plain look of the website. I wish that there was a way to add a creative background or personalize group pages.

ILP "Design" iMovie

For my second independent learning project I decided to make an iMove about the Center for Academic Retention & Enhancement (CARE) Department on campus, which is a department dedicated to increasing the enrollment and retention rate of first-generation, low-income students at Florida State University. This informative iMove is dedicated to potential CARE 18' students, who will be 2018 class seniors in high school. This iMove will help expose the CARE summer bridge program to students, as well as introduce them to CARE staff, and provide students with helpful tips.

I learned a great deal using iMove such as adding audio to video clips, making PowerPoint like slides using title templates, adjusting audio sound and pitch to promote clear communication, and adding music in the background of the movie.

iMove Link

Post #8

Last week, our class toured the Student Disabilities Resource Center (SDRC) in the Student Services Building (SSB). This tour was very informative and I learned a great deal about the resources that are provided for students with a wide range of disabilities.
One resource that I thought was very beneficial to students who are blind are the brail textbooks. In particular I really liked the brail anatomy textbook. The technology used to produce these textbooks are brail printers, which are useful in schools to make copies of textbooks in brail for students who need to be accommodated due to their impaired vision.
Another technology resource that I liked was the Pen Recorder Pro and notepad, which could be beneficial to students in school for effective note taking. The pen records the lecture once the students start to write, and upon reviewing notes, students can tap on a specific word written in the notebook and it will playback the lecture at that particular starting point.

In a particular lesson such as Geography of the United States of America, each level of Bloom's Taxonomy can be used to promote student learning using Power Point. Starting from the bottom up, students can remember information by recalling facts and basic concepts such as the number of states that make up the USA, and memorizing each state. On the PowerPoint Slide I will add a YouTube video clip of a song of all 50 States that the students can memorize 50 States Song. 

Using PowerPoint I can help students understand by explaining  ideas or concepts to students by helping them identify state capitals, and add researched text to the PowerPoint explaining the history as to why a particular city was deemed the capital. 

I will help students apply information by using information they have learned in new situations. I will have riddles on a PowerPoint that describes a particular state, and students will apply what they have learned to interpret what state the riddle is describing.
Using Bloom's Taxonomy students can analyze information by drawing connections among ideas. For example, using PowerPoint I will have an outline of the United States and test students by pointing to different states, and ask students to name the state and its capital. Also, I will have students make connections to selected states by asking them to think of a famous person that is from a particular state. For example, Beyoncé is from Texas, and the capital of Texas is Austin.
To help evaluate the progress of the students understanding of the material, on the PowerPoint I will create a Jeopardy game to judge how well the students are grasping the information.
Lastly, I will have post an assignment of the PowerPoint slide stating that the students must get into group a create a visual board on an assigned state.

Website Link

Refdesk is a website that is useful for teachers who wish to stay abreast with technology for the classroom. Everyday the website is updated with a site of the day which teachers can check out and implement in the classroom. The website also has archives of past featured websites if teachers are unable to visit the site daily. There are also newspaper articles listed by state and country that can be a great resource for current events for ELL students. 

Diigo #4

What I learned about adaptive technology during this week's activities is that though adaptive technology assist students with disabilities in navigating computing devices, adaptive technology is not exclusively for students with disabilities. Some adaptive technology is used by millions of people who own smart phones such as word prediction, spellcheck, and touchscreen.

Post #7

Adaptive technologies are technologies that better assist individuals with disabilities using computing devices. Alternate output and input technology can help these individuals use computing devices more effectively by using magnified monitor screens, brail printers, voice recognition for typing, and joysticks instead of a mouse just to name a few.
Students with learning disabilities can use computer based organizers or spell checkers for students with dyslexia. It is important to note that adaptive based technologies must be assigned based on the students needs.
This can be a challenge when implementing adaptive technology  in the classroom because there is a plethora of adaptive technology that can be used but there are specific technologies that will be most effective for a particular student and their particular needs.
An interesting Adaptive technology that was mentioned in chapter 4 is word prediction software. When learning about adaptive technologies, word prediction software never came to mind as an example of technology used for students with special needs, because it is a common feature on cellphones that myself and millions of others use everyday.
When typing, the word prediction software guesses what word will come next in the sentence you are creating to minimize keystrokes and help with spelling.
A really cool feature mentioned in chapter 4 is custom dictionaries."Using custom dictionaries helps to predict vocabulary specific to a particular writing activity or subject. For example, i a student is writing a paper on dinosaurs, a custom dictionary can be set up that includes words such as riassac, Early Cretaceous, Plateosaurus, Coelophysis, and Scutellosaurus"(Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2015, p.69). 

Some new skills that I acquired from designing my own webpage is embedding a Google calendar. Before this assignment I have never used Google calendar before and I learned about some neat features such as separating new calendars from my personal calendar, changing the color of the calendar and adding borders. What I liked about this assignment was that is was a challenge. This assignment truly took me out of my element, especially when designing a website from scratch. In the future I could enhance my design my taking my own photos and uploading them to the website to make the website more personable. What I learned during this assignment that I could use in the future is creating a web design in general. I believe that I could make web pages in the future to connect with students on a Higher Education level.

 Web Design Link

Teacher Productivity Reflection

What I learned about teacher productivity tools through this activity is that many tools and technology such as worksheets, attendance databases, communication channels, and coding, have been developed to make teachers administrative tasks more effective and efficient. I also learned that teacher productivity tools are beneficial for collaborative purposes with other professionals, parents, and students, by means of communicating with one another.

ILP "Design" - Prezi

For my first Independent Learning Project, I wanted to create an informative presentation that I could connect to personally, that also correlated to education using two web 2.0 technology websites. I decided to create a Prezi and attempted to share my Prezi presentation to another web 2.0 website called SlideShare, which is the website I introduced to the class through Diigo.
To ensure that I got the most of my learning experience on a topic that I find interesting and personal, I researched and found a peer-reviewed article on the reading learning profile of students with Down Syndrome.
 I connected to this topic personally because my older brother has Down Syndrome. I used the article an a means of educating my audience about what Down Syndrome is, and related it to education and teaching by informing the audience that students with Down Syndrome can indeed read, which is a misconception that many people may not be aware of.
I also, presented suggestions from the article on strategies to use in the classroom to teach students with special needs how to read that may be beneficial to current teachers, and future teachers who work with students with special needs.
Navigating through Prezi for the first time was slightly more difficult than PowerPoint, and it took some time for me to learn how to incorporate certain features. I Also added a picture of my brother and my nephew to my Prezi to add my personal touch, and a video of a teacher teaching a child how to read using strategies that was mentioned in the article.
I noticed that on Prezi, there are some free feature available to users, but certain features such as downloading the presentation onto your computer was only available for those who purchase Prezi Pro. When attempting to upload my Prezi using a URL link to SlideShare, I learned that the two web 2.0 websites are not compatible.
Therefore, to upload presentations on SlideShare, users either need to have purchased Prezi Pro to download a PDF file or use compatible software such as OneDocumentText and Spreadsheet, Microsoft Word Docs, Window Media files etc.
Though I was unable to combine the two web 2.0 websites, I learned a great deal about the websites strengths and limitations.

http://prezi.com/afzxt4tqn4h9/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Post #6

I came across a website of a combined elementary/middle school named The Lyme School in New Hampshire. The class page that I observed is Mrs. Wilcox's first grade class. The information presented on the class page for the public to see include a blogger page, homework section, newsletters, a weekly schedule, and information about the teacher. On this class page I did not have the access to view or write comments.

The way I envision myself using technology to accomplish my professional responsibility more efficiently and effectively as suggested in the podcast is by saving digital versions of lesson plans to update and use for years to come.

 I could also post my lesson plans on teacher websites to share thoughts and ideas with other teachers. In this way, I could work efficiently by saving time creating new lesson plans every week. Instead, I will be able to update digital lessons plans for later use. 

Sharing lesson plans enables other professionals to increase productivity, making collaborations more  efficient and teaching more effective. 

I can also envision myself using productivity software in my future profession to assist me in "accomplishing the administrative, professional, and management tasks associated with the profession" (Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2015, p.146). I could perform tasks such as memos, letters, reports, and budget sheets. This will allow me to be organized, making my responsibility as a professional as efficiently and effectively.

Our class field trip to the Technology Sandbox was an experience to remember. The technology displayed in the Tech Sandbox that I believe would be most helpful in the classroom is Osmos. It is an interactive game that students could competitively play against other students, or play independently to learn a number of concepts such as shapes, ABC's, geography, math, etc. For example, I was given the opportunity to play a geography based activity using Osmos by spelling out state names and capitals using tile letters, to match to and outlined map of the United States on the tablet screen. This particular activity can be very effective in a middle school Geography course. I believe that this technology can be used to teach students in any grade level and in any subject, which is effective because it is universal and adaptive. 

Diigo 1: Academic Software

Today I learned the importance and benefit of annotating bookmarked articles and commenting back on my classmates thoughts on articles. Through annotations, I was able to get a brief overview of what the article was about, and I was able to navigate through the article by focusing on the highlighted text and its surrounding content. Commenting back allowed me to share my personal thoughts on the article instead of summarizing and elaborating on highlighted sentences.

Post #5

Two Web 2.0 technologies that I believe are useful in the classroom, and also supports teachers professional development are Blogs and Diigo. 

Blogs are useful tools for the students to interact in a web-based community while sharing ideas related to class discussions and topics. 

For teachers, using Blogs as oppose to discussion boards supports their professional development by allowing them to be innovative and stand out from other instructors. 

Teachers cater to the needs of students by creating a space for students to be expressive and creative, while also learning and building a sense of community. 

For example, I have never blogged before I enrolled in EME2040;

 and even though our class is assigned topics to discuss within our blog posts, I have noticed that I am more willing to be more expressive in my writing and share personal experiences. 

Unlike when answering questions on discussion board post, where I am more formal and straightforward when answering questions. 

According to the Web 2.0 podcast, Diigo is a great tool to use in the classroom because students can bookmark and annotate articles.

 Students can collect articles from the internet, take notes on the article, and share these articles with classmates. 

I believe that this is a great way for students to do research effectively, and determine whether or not an article is reliable or pertains to their research topic. 

Diigo supports teachers professional development by allowing them to share Web 2.0 technology with students to ensure that research is being conducted in the most professional way. 

An interesting Web 2.0 tool I have discovered and will most likely use when teaching is called SlideShare.
SlideShare can be compared to a blog, but instead of creating a post about a relative topic, users create a slideshow presentation that is then uploaded on the website for others to see.
I really like the idea of SlideShare because its design is a cross between Tumblr, PowerPoint, and Facebook. Therefore, it gives users a social media feels to the website which can attract students and keep them engage.
Major topics are also organized into sections such as economics, education, marketing, art, etc., which is a great feature for teachers to use when assigning students to connect with professionals and learn informative information in a particular field of study. http://www.slideshare.net/

According to the technology advancements in chapter 12, the technology that holds the biggest promise for education are massive open online courses (MOOCs).
I believe that MOOCs are the technology of tomorrow because it offers free online courses on topics taught at universities, to thousands of individuals who have an interest in learning more about a topic.
Since MOOCs are web-based courses, it allows more flexibility for individuals to learn if they have full-time jobs or busy raising a family.
MOOCs can b utilized by "Opening opportunities to learn and collaborate... and may well be the tentative first step in restructuring higher education, secondary education, and adult learning in the 21st century" (Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2015, p.293).

E-Course Reflection Post

The content of the e-course material was very informative, and relevant to me as a student. It taught me new ways of communicating with team members virtually, as well as tools and software that allows real time collaborative editing, so that team members can minimize face-to-face meetings.

The content of the e-course material relates to my future career, by exposing me to software that would allow me to schedule meetings and have web conferencing calls with team members across the globe. As a future director of a program on a university level, I could make use of all of the software presented in the e-course, depending on the capacity of the project. 

An ah-ha moment I experienced when watching the e-course videos was bigs and issues topic. I dawned on me that every time I participate in team projects, my group always seem to run into problems close to the projects deadline. If our group plans ahead and brainstorm the potential problems we may run into, then we can troubleshoot those problems to prevent future issues. 

I was pleased with the e-course design and I liked that students were allowed to work on the assignment over a days period rather than in one sitting.

I did experience some technical difficulties with the e-ourse that was rather frustrating. The course took forever (about 20 minutes) to download in order to enter the the e-course. Some sections allowed me to pause the video long enough to take notes and the last section did not. 

My overall reaction to the  e-course would be that it was effective and informative, but needs to be modernized.    

Post #4

Believe it or not, one of my New Year resolutions was to stop using twitter. There was a point when I would consume all of my time tweeting and finding myself deep in celebrity gossip. When the class was given the twitter assignment, I wasn't too excited about it because I recently weened away from using twitter, and BOOM! temptation strikes again. 

I found that using twitter for professional purposes are a lot less exciting than using twitter for personal and social reasons. Therefore, using twitter is just another task or homework assignment I must complete every week. 

When using twitter I mainly interact with the class twitter page in order to attempt the challenges the page tweets out every now and than. Also, there is one classmate I follow that tweets hilarious memes, and I tend to retweet her post often. 

Using twitter has been beneficial so far because our course professors sends out reminders about assignments or who we may have forgotten to follow to get full credit on the twitter assignment. Twitter could help in my professional career by being a resource for networking. Many professionals own twitter accounts and spread important information to a wide audience.

Twitter is also a great resource to use as a professional to engage in interactive discussions, just by trending a hashtag. 

In my future career I plan to work with college students, and using twitter will be a great platform to reach out to students about activities and workshops that may be beneficial to them. 

The digital divide mentioned in the podcast is a term that refers to the gap between those who have access to technology and the internet, compared to those who do not.

 The digital divide also refers to the educational and societal disparity of internet access, that impacts the knowledge and skills that can be acquired by those who have easy access to the internet versus those who do not.  

The digital divide affects students success in schools because students who have easy access to the internet at home, in schools, and the latest computers with updated software and programs have an advantage over students who do not have this privilege. 

For example, if one student has the means to access new technology at home, in school, and from a smartphone, he/she will have more experience using technology thus creating an advantage for the  student to acquire more knowledge, technology skills, and social/networking skills. Whereas, another student will be well at a disadvantage and less likely to be challenged by teachers, due to the lack of accessible technology in the area. 

Some causes of the digital divide can be linked to the area in which ones socioeconomic status. For example, low-income communities and Title I schools may not have the financial assistance to provide students with the latest technology resources. 

Also, some families are at a disadvantage financially and cannot afford another bill for the internet, especially when families live paycheck to paycheck. 

As a teacher, I may have students who come from an area that has limited resources for internet access, and/or students who do not have internet access at home. 

This would affect my teaching strategy because I would like all of my students to be tech savvy, and be responsible digital citizens. Therefore, I will make sure that all of my lesson plans involve using the computer lab at school, to provide consistent exposure to the internet and the plethora of informative information it contains.  

Hypothetically speaking, if I were an Elementary school teacher, teaching multiple subjects to 2nd graders, the student software that I would use the most is educational games.
I would use educational games the most because "games present content in a format that engages the learner while providing practice"(Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2015, p.177).
When teaching multiple subjects to young kids who have short attention spans, I believe that using educational games will be the best way for students to learn, practice, and recall information mentioned during class in an interactive way.
The software that I would use the least is reference software such as encyclopedias, and dictionaries online. The reason why I would try to avoid using this type of software is because "research software provides digital versions of resources found only in volumes of books"(Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2015, p.183), and I am afraid that the material will be too contextual for 2nd graders to grasp, especially at a beginning reading level. 

Post #3

The ELA technology standard that I feel most prepared to teach with my existing knowledge would be W/WHST.8 "Use Multiple Sources". 

I am confident in my ability to teach others about the use of multiple sources, because I have gained experience through writing hundreds of college-level papers, that required gathering relevant information pertaining to a topic, from credible sources such as peer-reviewed journals, articles, and books. 

On several occasions throughout my college career, librarians have been guest speakers in my classes, and taught students how to effectively research topics, take notes, paraphrase, and cite credible sources to avoid plagiarism. I believe that with all of the knowledge I have gained as well as my experience of writing college-level papers, I will be able to teach and pass this knowledge on to other students. 

The ELA technology standard that I feel would require more learning on my part would be SL.5 "Use Digital Media".

I believe that it easier for me to consume technology and its information, and more difficult to produce technology. For example, when producing information via technology using PowerPoint, I would most likely enhance my presentation using cool pictures from the internet. 

What I have noticed that I lack when adding cool pictures to my PowerPoint slides is that I rarely do so to clarify information or strengthen claims, but instead I use pictures for decoration.

Also, I wouldn't even know where to begin if I were asked to add an audio recording or music in the background of a presentation.


As a future educator, the technology/software that I would use with college students would be Weblogs.
Weblogs or blogs are "virtual online spaces that support the posting of personal commentary on the Web" (Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2015, p.215). I would use Weblogs with my students to provide them with their personal web space to communicate in an interactive and creative way, as oppose to discussion boards (Lever-Duffy, 2015).
I believe that using Weblogs will be appropriate for college-level students, because it can be used as a networking tool to collaborate with other college students on group projects, in an interactive and expressive way through the designing of their blog page.
The digital citizen concepts that I would address with my students would be based on the guidelines of "students participating in the community in a meaningful, appropriate, and on topic way, that advances the the community as a whole" (Lever-Duffy, 2015).
I would like to address this particular guideline because it is important highlight two key points: 1) "think before posting and sharing to ensure that their contributions enhances the Web and its communities" (Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2015, p.224) especially when making blogs that are visible to a wide audience.  2) "Remember that everything posted or shared may remain permanently available on the Web"(Lever-Duffy, 2015), in order to help students be mindful of the content of what they post and how it may effect them in the future.


One of the "open" terms that was used in the podcast was open content which is reused, remixed, and revised, and redistribute learning material that are downloadable resources for educational use. Open content is also closely related to copyright because it gives guidelines about how the learning material found on the internet can be used.
Open content may consist on any digital material such as pictures, videos, music, and audio recordings that are reusable due to the open license that is attached to the material. Open content also allows the consumer of material to be a secondary creator of the original material due to the open license that allows users to revise material without directly asking for permission from the original creator. Open Content


When working on the Newsletter Design assignment, a new skill that I have acquired was incorporating my newsletter with pictures that are Public Domain or available for public use without copyright issues.
What I liked about this assignment and my design specifically, was that I was able to personalize the newsletter by choosing which grade level I wanted the newsletter to cater to, as well as the subject. This allowed me to be creative with my design and made it easier to find pictures that related to a grade level and subject area.
What I do not like about the design is that I had limited space to add cool pictures on the second page of the newsletter. It was difficult to add pictures on page two because it mostly consisted of two original articles as well as the permission slip. Adding more pictures caused spacing issues, therefore, pictures were limited.
I could improve the design next time by organizing and minimizing the length of articles to provide more space for creative designs.
The skills I have learned when working on the Newsletter Design assignment are transferable to my future career, because I am now confident in designing newsletters that will be useful when communicating with college students, and connecting them to resources that are available on campus.

Post #2

As a student, I have used Microsoft Word to write papers, to create resumes and cover letters, and to take notes in class using OneNote. Microsoft Word was also used to spellcheck my writings, and to make charts and graphs. Also as a student I have seen teachers and professors use Microsoft Word to create syllabus, and to communicate instructions for assignments throughout the semester.

Whenever I hear the phrase copyright and fair use of material, the first word that comes to mind is PLAGIARISM. I have been hearing talk about plagiarism every year at the beginning of the semester since the 9th grade. When I began college as a freshman, the Academic Honor Policy has been reinforced over and over during syllabus overviews, footnotes at the end of assignment instructions, emails, and pop-up messages before submitting assignments through BlackBoard, SafeAssign, and TurnItIn. As a teacher I will deal with the concept of copyright and fair use by getting familiar with the guidelines of using and distributing intellectual work from others. Therefore, I will know as a teacher what material I would have to pay for, and how many pages in a textbook I can copy or scan for my students before it is considered illegal. I will deal with copyright issues with my students by having them turn in their assignments through SafeAssign or TurnItIn, which is a database of student assignments in archives that dates back many years. It will cross-reference assignments and papers to ensure that students are creating their own work. 

As I reflect on the technology implementation issues that were discussed in Chapter 11 of the course textbook, I have proposed solutions to cyberbullying, protecting students safety and privacy, and ensuring academic honesty, in order to promote integrity amongst digital citizens. The solution I have proposed to decrease incidences of cyberbullying, would be to have a class discussion that would inform students about what cyberbullying is, and the affects cyberbullying may have on the victims, and the consequences the culprit will face. I can also show video clips of students who have been victims of cyberbullying, so that my students can be sympathetic towards this issue. As a teacher I will promote the protection of students safety and privacy by creating a presentation about cyber-etiquette. For example, I will discuss key issues such as why students should not post their addresses, and phone numbers for safety reasons, and I will teach students the steps to make their social media accounts private or how to customize what information is viewable to the public. Lastly, I will send a letter home to parents about the importance of monitoring their children's social media. The solution I have proposed to promote integrity amongst digital citizens is to go over the Academic Honor Policy with my students, and create a quiz of realistic scenarios about plagiarism. Afterwards, as a class we will go over the answers to the quiz to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and close by discussing the consequences the students will face if they do not abide by the strict rules. 

Post #1

Seeing technology and the use of it in classrooms, seems like second nature in the 21st Century. There are a number of factors that influences teachers to use technology in their classrooms. For example, program initiatives such as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), which is "a federally funded initiative to develop standards for technology for teachers, other education professionals, and student" (Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2015, p.3). "ISTE's project called the National Educational Technology Standards - Teachers, was developed to evaluate teachers knowledge and skill that they should have in order to prepare students to be proficient in technology usage" (Lever-Duffy, 2015), which would of course influence teachers to use technology in their classrooms. Teachers are also influenced to use technology in their classrooms to help support administrative reporting, teaching and research such as, "helping report attendance, entering grades, preparing a worksheet, or researching a topic on the internet" (Lever-Duffy, 2015, p.12). There are also factors that influences students to use technology in the classrooms. For example, students are influenced to use technology in the classrooms as a means of learning according to their cognitive and learning styles, and communication. Other factors that influences students to use technology in classrooms include the need to foster critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration (Lever-Duffy, 2015). Both the influences of the use of technology for teachers as well as students are synthesized based on the bidirectional needs of the student and the teachers learning objectives for the students. For example, "educators are charged with ensuring that students are prepared for their place in society, therefore, teacher and student technology literacy is a critical tool" (Lever-Duffy, 2015, p3).

The ISTE standard for students "enable students to engage and thrive in a connected, digital world" (ISTE, 2017). One standard that gladdens my heart is the Global Collaborator standard that states: "Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally" (ISTE, 2017). This standard gladdens my heart because it promotes technology that fosters diversity, which is important in our society to embrace our differences to support positive change. Another standard that seems to be outside of my current skill set would be the Computational Thinker standard which states: "Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions" (ISTE, 2017). I believe that this standard is outside of my current skill set because I rarely use technology as a means of solving problems and developing and testing solutions, but instead as a means of entertainment and study purposes.

Digital natives is a term that describes individuals who have grown up knowing technology. I agree with the label digital native because it accurately describes the cohort of individuals who could barely recall a time without advanced technology such as the computers, the internet, and cellphones. I also agree with this label because it does not guarantee that this cohort of individuals will automatically know all there is to know about technology, but instead it focuses on the presence of technology in ones life time rather than the effective use of it. I have seen differences between myself (a digital native),  and my older professors (digital immigrants) on the basis of technology use in the classroom. For example, sometimes when my professor veers from the PowerPoint slide lecture to a YouTube video clip, it is often hard for them to navigate back to lecture slides which cause students in the audience to vocally assist the professor to return to the correct tab. The impact instances like these have had on my learning experience is that it makes the professor seem less credible to teach and is distracting to my learning process. The difference in technology usage I anticipate to have with my future students is to be proficient in navigating through the internet and to keep up-to-date with current information and include interactive programs and videos to my lectures. 

#0

The prior experiences I have had with technology started when I was a little kid. I was raised by my grandmother who taught elementary school students for many years and later became a Principal. My grandmother made sure that I was well-rounded  as a student, and would often buy me educational computer disks that I would have to download onto the computer in order to play. As I got older I used technology in elementary school in the classroom and in the Media Center. As a Teen I learned a great deal about technology when I got my first iPhone. 

In this course I hope to master skills that I can apply to my grad school coursework, and to my professional  career in Higher Education. I also hope to learn about new technology, programs, and websites that can enhance presentations I may give. Lastly, I hope to gain knowledge and share new resources with others about the field trips our class will be experiencing this semester.

Today I learned that my learning style depends on the task I am working on, and that I do not stick to one specific learning style. For example, when I am being guided by an instructor who is using technology I am a visual learning, but when performing tasks and assignments on my own I would prefer reading step-by-step instructions.