Blog Post #8

One of the technologies that I experienced in the FSU Assistive Technology Lab that I found could be beneficial in schools was the Smart Pen. With the Smart Pen, students can write notes on certain paper and record the lecture with the pen. When the student places the pen on the paper it will play back the lecture from what the student has written. This tool could be useful in the classroom because it takes the pressure off students to get down what the teacher is saying. Being able to play the audio back allows students to listen to the lecture as many times as they need to understand it.

The Bloom’s Taxonomy was created to categorize educational goals. Bloom’s Taxonomy can be used in a math PowerPoint lesson. For example, the bottom level/foundation of Bloom’s Taxonomy is to remember this can be done through define math concepts for students on the PowerPoint. The next is to understand, in a math PowerPoint I can write out the step by step instructions on how to do a problem. Next, comes apply, which means to use information in a new situation. I can use PowerPoint and hyperlink a fun math game that students can come up and use to practice with different problems. Then the next step is to analyze where students can learn from the PowerPoint how to compare different methods of solving a problem. Evaluate is next, in the PowerPoint I will show students why one method is more effective to solve a problem than another. Lastly, is create after learning from the PowerPoint I will have students create and design their own problems and come up with a solution.

            The Prince’s Teaching Institute twitter page is a great way to stay up to date on professional development for teachers. The Prince’s Teaching Institute tweets about upcoming workshops and conferences that teachers can attend. They also tweet about how teachers can enhance their impact. https://twitter.com/princesteaching/media

Blog Post #7

Adaptive technologies help people with disabilities more effectively use computing equipment. Input voice recognition software helps people who cannot type use a computer. I have never used adaptive technologies. When I did my observation hours for Introduction to Education the teacher I was assigned to had a student who did not speak English. The teacher would use an iPad with translating capabilities to talk to the student. A challenge with this was that the software did not transfer what the teacher was trying to say exactly. Also, sometimes the student was still confused about what the teacher was asking. The challenges that I perceive using adaptive technologies in my classroom is that I am not familiar with it. If I were to have someone in my class that needed to use adaptive technology I would need to learn how to use it in case they had any questions.

The new skills I acquired from working on the Web Page Design assignment was how to create a website. I did not think I would like this assignment, and I thought that creating my own web page would be hard. But, after completing the assignment I was so proud of what I created. I never thought I would be able to make something like that. It also made me appreciated all the effort that goes into making a website. It took me a long time to figure out what color text would show up on different backgrounds. This easy task was something I never thought of before. What I liked about this assignment was being able to create something that I could one day use when I am a teacher. One thing I did not like about this assignment was when I would try to add a text box I could not put it where ever I wanted and I became frustrated. I later realized that I could not put the text box wherever because I had picked a certain template for my website. In my future career, I will make a website like the one made for this assignment. I think having a website for your class is great for both parents and students.

Diigo can be useful in the classroom to post assignments and have a class discussion. As a teacher, I can post a web assignment and have the students interact with each other while at home. For example, I can assign an article to read and have students annotate the article while using Diigo. Then, other students can look and see what their classmates have annotated. I could use Diigo with other teachers to share bookmarks to things we find on the internet that might be useful for one another. In my individual professional efforts, I can use Diigo to bookmark website I find interesting and see what other people are bookmarking on Diigo.

Assignment 4 - Web Page Design

Check out my website here!