Emily Danielle

Today in class individually I got to look deeper into a specific teacher professional development resource called EdCamp. These online conferences are great for teachers to connect with other educators from anywhere in the world to discuss topics that they are interested in, whether it be technology in the classroom, behavior management, etc. It is a great tool for teachers to gain insight of other strategies and ideas used around the world that they can implement in their own teaching. Through viewing others bookmarks it was cool to see how many of the professional development tools we use in our daily life. These include twitter, linkedin, diigo and other social media/bookmarking sites. These tools we may use at our own leisure in our free time but it's amazing to see how educators can communicate and share ideas with other educators to continue their professional developments through these same sites. I also tough the use of ted talks were very interesting because as a student ...

   Adaptive technologies are used in classrooms to support all kinds of learners including gifted and english language learning students as well as those with disabilities such as visual/hearing impairments, dyslexia/other learning disabilities, motor disabilities and many others. When paired with effective teaching these technologies can help students with limitations excel in the classroom, adapting to their disabilities through technology allow these student's capabilities in the classroom to improve as they reach their highest potential as learners. Students with learning disabilities can be supported with technology by using grammar/spell checks, audio books so they can get the information both visually and by hearing, and programs like ReadThinkWrite explained in the book that help students organize thoughts and ideas. For physical disabilities there are input devices such as enlarged keyboards, joysticks, etc. making technology more accessible for these students. Studen...

Individually through this week's lesson I got to research all the different forms of adaptive technology that exists.  It's amazing to see how students with all disabilities ranging from visual, auditory, physical, learning and beyond are able to be incorporated into a normal classroom through the use of technology. Through pervious lessons we saw the features of all these technologies including the smart board, text-to-speech, and other amazing technologies. But through individual research I got to see that these great technologies can really help people with disabilities keep up in the classroom. For example, the interactive features of the smart board allow students with visual impairments to be able to participate in these hands-on activities because visuals are often larger and contrast is better, allowing the to be able to see. Through group presentations I got to specifically focus on how technology can help both english language learners as well as gifted students. F...

By using twitter as an educational tool, I never realized how informational it can be. There are so many different accounts making it easier to connect with big educational companies, educational professionals and even allows you to see what things are going on in FSU's College of Education that we may not have seen or heard about if it hadn't been for twitter. Personally I don't like to read really long articles, by having a 140 character limit I can get the summary of an article/report and then decide if I want to read the whole article that is attached. The biggest benefit is definitely  the accessibility to big company's ideas, products, services, etc. that we may not have heard of without twitter or other social media, allowing for educators to employ these new ideologies in the classroom. The only issue I have with twitter is sometimes the 140 character limit isn't enough, although it is great to summarize sometimes you cant get enough in with the link or hash...

As part of my Independent Learning Project I designed a prezi that would go along with a 1st grade writing workshop on building stories! A prezi is a presentation software that shows the peoject as a whole to create an image ( a book for this project) as you go through the presentation you zoom into to different topics and subtopics. I really enjoyed getting to logically place the activities in order so kids would best understand the elements needed to create an interesting story. My presentation begins by getting kids to think of their favorite story and what it has that makes it their favorite this section ends with a video explaining the different parts of a story such as characters, setting, plot and how to separate beginning middle and end. The next topic enforces the topics explained in the video by giving definitions and picture examples, followed by a short minon movie where students are prompted to pull out the elements of the story. Lastly, the presentation gives instruction ...

CONTRAST =  The background is red while text boxes are cream so they stand out and are easy to read. Titles of the articles were black and in all caps so they would stand out. Text was bright and and contrasted well against cream to make it more visible.  REPETITION= The teacher should have stuck to using the same color text within a text box to make the webpage more uniform. Many different text colors within the same section make it confusing since there is so much to look at. However, by using the same font throughout titles and text it is visually appealing.  ALIGNMENT= The text is aligned left which makes it easy to read. There is also equal space between each section of text within the boxes. The welcome image isn't aligned center so it looks out of place.  PROXIMITY= Boxes about what they are learning and what their assignments are are all grouped together. Information geared towards parents such as contact information and announcements is located near the...

Through researching teacher productivity tools on my own, I got to really see all the different ways that teachers use tools like Microsoft Word, Excel, Canvas, email, etc. Beyond just teaching teachers uses these tool for lessons planning and documentation so they can easily be updated for years to come, record keeping, behavior management, attendance, storing contact/volunteer information, and communication with parents.  Through social learning and bookmarking I got to see multiple different apps, websites and other resources that I have never seen before so teachers can get all of their business/professional tasks done. Some of these tools include FreshGrade which allows teachers to update grades and communicate with parents while students can upload assignments within the same app. Another tool is wunderlist that is where teachers can easily view and check off everything they need to do.

I looked at my own elementary school's website ( McKitrick Elementary Schoolhttp://mckitrick.mysdhc.org ) to see what information is shown to parents and students without needing to login. When you first see the school's homepage, you see sections with news, the calendar, rolling pictures of current events at the school and their twitter is embedded on the bottom right. From the homepage you can chose tabs to a staff directory, resources, lunch menus, school info, etc. When you go to specific grade level you see more teacher specific school supply list, important dates to remember, announcements, photo galleries, and spelling lists. This allows for parents to stay up to date on what is going on in the classroom without teachers having to send home handouts that could get lost before seen by parents. A link to Mckitrick's website as well as pictures of the school and 1st grade/class specific websites can be found at the bottom of this post. Although it may see simple, ...

This week while learning about Web 2.0, my eyes have been opened to just how widespread technology is. By using Diigo, a social bookmarking website, you can share great articles, resources and other types of media with different groups of people. This tool is great for the communication and sharing of resources that can really aid in the classroom. Users can also annotate different texts so people looking at their Diigo for information can grab key points and narrow their search of content. Tools like Diigo and other Web 2.0 sites truly "transform how teachers present information and engage students", through Diigo and other sources educators have so many resources they can collect information, lesson plans, activities and resources from that the whole classroom dynamic of today has changed into one of a technology-centered and engaged environment. Tools like Diigo can also be effective for students to share findings when researching a similar topic or subject area.

With all the new ways there are to learn in today's classroom, I think that all the Web 2.0 technologies mentioned in the "Web 2.0 in the classroom" podcast would have a positive impact on both learning and teacher professional development. I believe that twitter can be very useful in the K-12 classrooms. Twitter allows for all ages to improve their digital citizenship skills, and can communicate directly with professionals, authors and even other students all around the world. Twitter is also a great way to to get students to summarize concepts by only being allowed 140 characters. For teachers, twitter is a great way to connect with other teachers and professionals while growing their personal learning network. Blogs, like the one I am using today is a great way to encourage students to participate in creative writing, as well as making writing easy and enjoyable for readers. Blogs also allow for easily accessible feedback, as shown in the resource critique activity ...

@allyballybee16 found an activity that forces students to read more in depth & engages all students by incorporating technology! #FSUEdtech — Emily Whidden (@emdanielle5) October 4, 2017

   Throughout my early experiences with having  a twitter for educational purposes, I have been able to interact with other aspiring teachers, as well as people who are already teachers and big education corporations. I find it beneficial in this class because it allows you to really see what a big topic  technology is and how widespread it is throughout the field of technology. I think twitter is great for teachers, and in my future career I will be able to use it for learning about different resources and educational technologies, and is an easy way to stay up to date with all of the new advances and things happening within education by following pages like The US Dept. of Education, Education Weekly, etc. Using hashtags like #FSUEdTech is a great way for teachers to see how their coworkers/ peers from around the world feel, approach and incorporate different situations and strategies into their classroom.   The digital divide is the gap between students who ...