Blog Journal #5

     My experiences on Pinterest and Instagram have been wholly positive. I've been able to see what the daily life of other teachers looks like which gives me an idea of what my life will look like in the future. It has been interesting to see the variety of advice and resources that can be found on these applications. They a range anywhere from lesson material to outfit inspiration and lunch ideas. I think these platform will help me maintain a balanced lifestyle in my future career. Access to these resources could help prevent burnout and assist with the creative part of teaching. They could also help me connect with other teachers and create a greater community I can be involved in.

    Growing up, I attended very digitally rich schools. I always had access to technological devices and internet. In elementary school we attended computer labs to teach us basic digital literacy. I also really using different online softwares and programs during class which helped improve my comfort with technology. Also, in elementary school we did a coding program as part of before-school daycare. My middle school provided ICT and Digital Media classes that could help students become more digitally literate. This continued throughout high school where different computer science courses and other technology based classes were offered. My high school and middle school also provided a laptop for free and a plug-in wifi device by request which helped provide more equal access to technology for all students. All of these resources helped my technology preparedness. The different courses, applications and software, and widespread access helped me feel comfortable using technology. This started from a young age which I think was important to my personal growth. While in elementary school we were provided a lot of instruction to help with digital literacy, the later grades became more based on student choice. I think the schools should have continued to emphasize technology preparedness as it is such an important skill for our futures. 

    I think collaborative writing and social annotation are an important part of classes these days. There are a lot of technologies I might use like Padlet, Miro, FigJam, and discussion posts on Canvas. I think these tools are good for helping students share their ideas efficiently. This also allows other students to see others' ideas on the topic and for the teacher to reply in real-time. These softwares make group work and discussion much easier and more organized than simply asking questions to the class. I think these tools could be used in a variety of ways in different classes. In English, softwares like these can help students provide analysis on different elements of texts. For history courses, these platforms would help students provide comments on the values and limitations of sources. I also think for small group activities in class, these platform are great. They allow for students to work simultaneously, see what other groups are doing, and allow teachers to monitor all of the students at once. I might use something like Miro or FigJam in a history class and assign different groups to analyze a document during class. These softwares would allow students to work collaboratively and look at the comments on other sources being analyzed in class.