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My Former Views About Technology and Use of It in the Classroom
My former views about technology were that youth and adults rely on it too much for entertainment, information, social interaction, body image, and the list goes on. When they aren't on computers or phones for the aforementioned reasons, they're plugging away for school work or their professions. I believe these two sets of habits of leave many people exhausted without always realizing why. I was one of those people. When I completed my digital map, I saw that my online engagements were limited to entertainment (music on YouTube being quite a staple for me) and work - lots of work on applications like GMail and Google Classroom). I had barely begun to explore valuable education platforms (Padlet and Jamboard rarely got used) and had scattered experience integrating assistive technology. This was partly due to low confidence and an unstable classroom infrastructure that I've experienced since the pandemic. An image of my digital map from May is below. It almost makes me cringe now.
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My Updated Views About Technology and Succeeding Plans
It's been only a few weeks since I created this digital map, and I feel more optimistic and confident. When creating my blog post on "Trends in Technology," I had forgotten how comfortable I had gotten with
Pear Deck during remote learning. In four short years since I used the application, they've added an assessment tool, a differentiated practice platform, and even a 1:1 tutoring service (for added cost). All of these resources can be found under their "Products" menu. When I attempted to use Pear Deck upon returning the classroom, I was disappointed to learn that our school's subscription was not reinstated; however, I've heard that it's been renewed again, and I would like to use its differentiation tool, especially if I teach a small setting but will advocate for it even in a cotaught classroom. My experience with
Kahoot predates the pandemic, and my use of
Quizizz has been growing
My refreshed memory with the platforms mentioned above gives me confidence to use Padlet and Jamboard more as well; I've only used the first application as a co-teacher (not having the lead on the lessons) and I played around with Jamboard during remote learning but still don't know all of its features.
As of right now, I'm most enthused about incorporating assistive technology into my instruction. I realize this is an area I need to grow in. Unfortunately, my school's subscriptions with various text-to-speech and automatic typing programs have been inconsistent; however, I was delighted to learn from my own research and that of classmates that Google Chrome offers many free tools such as Select-to-Speak, Dictation, High Contrast, and many more. A
complete list of tools for individuals with special needs was generated by Eric Curtis and is a resource I just shared with myself. Even though some of these tools are add-ons, they are all worth encouraging your school to purchase if necessary.
In summary, I found all of the material I learned in LIS 724 to be useful. I'm now prepared to have my students design
Wakelets,
blogger posts, and
Flip videos. Once I finish my professional presence website, I will be ready to show them how to use
Wix.
To conclude, I look forward to much better days ahead! The image featured first below, taken from my first blog post, shows how I've felt about education and technology for the last several years (as previously stated, my integration of technology in the classroom was fairly limited and inconsistent) and the image just below it shows how I feel now. One also has a preview of my current feelings from the image at the top of this post. Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty optimistic!
THEN
Free stock image
NOW
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