Blog Post 5

Why should teachers use technology to communicate with students, parents, and peers?
By using technology, communication can be much more efficient and swift. Instead of sending home letters, or calling each family individually, teachers are able to communicate to both the mass of the classroom and also parents individually about their children. Technology can help improve relationships between teachers, students, parents and peers by giving them the tools to communicate. Overall, by having technology implemented in the daily routine of the classroom more can be accomplished while improving relations between the classroom.

Which technology tools have the greatest potential to improve communication between teachers and others?
After taking this class, we focused on different technology tools that enables communication between teachers and others. Some of the best tools that can be used for teachers to communicate are blogs, newsletters, worksheets and email. Blogs are a great way to communicate because you can post things going on in the classroom, students work, and outside activities for students to partake in. The class is able to engage in the blog and add their input which can be useful to the class as a whole. Emails are good for one on one communication ideally, with parents, that can be private conversations about the student. Emails can also give fast updates to the class and parents on what is going on and things that need to be done. Newsletters let both students and parents know what is happening in the classroom, what is going to be happening in the future and can also keep everyone organized on assignments and due dates. Lastly worksheets can keep students communicated with the teacher in a classroom setting.

How do these tools improve communication? 
All of these tools can be used together to greatly improve the communication within the classroom, and can also be used separately and have a great effect. By having this quick communication within all these tools can help students succeed more and relieve stress on the teacher. If these tools were not implemented in the class then relations may be hurt because of a lack of efficiency in the classroom. When everyone knows what is going on, what needs to be done, and is able to keep in contact easily people are more likely to succeed.

Blog Post 4

I added 10 gadgets to my blog, including Search, Profile, Pages, Blog Archive, Tracker, Poll, Newsfeed, Popular posts, Slideshow, and Follow by email. Although I don't have many followers, the tracker gadget can be very interesting if I had my classroom looking at my blog frequently and they could see how much my blog was being viewed by each other. The poll is an interactive gadget that can keep the followers engaged as well as show each other how other people feel that are looking at my blog about certain issues. Newsfeed is a way for people viewing my blog to see current issues and be able to have easy access to find news articles. The popular posts gadget allows followers to better understand by blog and see the most important posts that I have published. The slideshow adds an extra touch to the blog by not taking up much room by being on the bottom, but also adding more to the blog and adding more multimedia to it. Lastly, the follow by email gadget adds an easy way for followers to keep up with my blog without having to check it all the time.

Sustainability

We learned about sustainability in class today and were able to watch this slide show with Voice Thread.

Accountability

Does technology in the classroom help or hurt?

Blog Post 3

One blog that works is this blog from Miss Tyler- Smith's class. When first clicking on the blog, the layout is very visually appealing. The colors are bright but not too bright to distract the viewer away from the page. While scrolling down the page, the gadgets on the side are nicely laid out and are not too overwhelming. There is just enough content on the sides without being too much to sort through. There are pictures on the page and the teacher does a good job of displaying student projects to the viewer. The content is posted by the students telling others what is going on in the classroom. This is a great way for the students to be engaged in technology, while also comprehending what is going on in the classroom and writing about it.
One blog that does not work is this blog from a 5th grade classroom. When I opened this, the bright colors were the first thing I noticed. The two bright colors combined takes away from the blog all together. In my opinion, the content in the middle is too large with it taking up too much space on the page. This leaves the two sidebars very smashed in on the sides. This results in a very small font in these sections making it harder to read. The blog is used to give assignments to the students. Although this can be very helpful, the blog should not be entirely dedicated to this since students can take notes in class and hear what the assignments are.

Accessibility

Step 2: "Digital Divide Defined"
1) Is it important for all people to have access to the Internet? Why or why not?
2) Will eliminating the digital divide create new global, national, and/or local social problems?
3) What might thee new problems be?

Blog Post 2

To a certain extent it is fair to judge teachers' private lives. Although teachers are free to do whatever they like outside of the classroom, they have to remember that they are role models for around thirty children at that time. Children look up to their teachers and often try to become just like them. If a student is at a restaurant for a Friday night family dinner and sees their teacher acting inappropriately, that could give the student the wrong idea. They see this adult that gives them their knowledge and that they admire acting poorly so they will think that it is acceptable. In addition, parents do not want to see the adult that spends most of the week with their children behaving in a non professional way. Teachers should be free to do whatever they please as long as it is in a setting where students and families will not be a witness to this. This includes both in the real world and online where private information is so easy to uncover these days.
Teachers should definitely have access to social networking sites. These sites allow teachers to communicate more efficiently with their co-workers and others. The one thing about these sites is that teachers should not have connections to their students and must maintain privacy on their sites. It is not right for teachers and students to be connected through sites such as facebook and myspace while they are still in a teacher/student relationship. As a teacher I would most likely take part in a social network that none of the students are not already participating in. I would dedicate this site entirely to the class so that no other posts or information would be shared other than class related work. I would also have any other social networks that I partake in completely private so that students would not be able to find me or access my site. With this process, the students and I would be able to communicate easily via social networks while avoiding any criticism of using them.

Blog Post 1

Looking back at my K-12 experience, I do not remember technology that much in it. In elementary school, once a week we would go to the computer lab for about an hour. We usually spent this time either learning techniques to typing, playing math games or spelling games. This helped us become more familiar with computers for future use although we did not spend much time using computers. Between the three years in middle school, computers were rarely ever used and most assignments were to be done by hand and not typed on the computer. High school incorporated computers more as I remember very frequently going to the computer lab and working on projects on the computers. Technology was used inside and outside of the classroom much more during high school. Although technology was not a major component of my K-12 experience, I feel as though it was the right amount to teach me how to use it without becoming obsessed with it.
If I were to begin teaching tomorrow, I would definitely integrate as much technology as I could into my classroom. The least I would do is bring my own computer into the classroom and connect it to a projector. This way I could show things to the classroom on my computer rather than on the whiteboard all the time. Using smartboards and laptops can keep the students more engaged in their learning and make things more interesting. It all comes down to how much the school can afford. If the school could afford to give my classroom a smartboard and 28 laptops like in the class I volunteered in, then that would be ideal. The more technology in the classroom the better, because that is our future. The sooner that students are able to become comfortable with how to work technology the better they will do when they grow up, because knowing how to use these devices is a necessity.

EDST 220 Driving Questions

1. Why should teachers use technology to communicate with students, parents and peers?
2.  Which technology tools have the greatest potential to improve communication between teachers and others?
3.  How do these tools improve communication?