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.