Blog Journal #9

 When the COVID-19 Pandemic hit the U.S., I, as well as many other students, were mandated to stay home and adapt to emergent remote learning. This hit me hard because I excelled when I was in person, and thought I would not be able to do the same at home. However, I learned to adapt to this new situation and I did my best to not fall behind on my academics. I liked being able to stay in the comfort of my home while I experienced distance learning. However, it also felt like I was locked up inside my house at times. Looking back, I'm glad I had this experience because it showed me to persevere through this unprecedented event and I am thankful that no one in my family was fatally affected by it. As a teacher, something I will do for distance learners is to check in with their academics, mental health, and whatever else they may need.

I see OER as a resource which a student can use to gain knowledge about a topic/subject. It is free and any educator can add information so more people can learn. However, I think the information might not always be accurate because anyone can edit it and they might add something that is false. An OER source I found is cK12, this resource is composed of subjects such as science, math, social studies, photography, and much more. I find it informational because it is like a tutoring center for Kinder to 12th grade. https://www.ck12.org/student/

Two new skills I acquired was learning how to record my voice to go along with lessons and how to link text/action buttons to slides. In my Assignment 4, it was new hearing my voice go along with the recordings. In my Assignment 5, it was so much fun creating a jeopardy game, especially because it was based on something I really love. Overall, I had a lot of fun working on both projects and I learned a lot of new skills that I will implement in projects later on in my academic and future career. 

Blog Journal #8

 As I have learned, there are multiple pieces of technology which can be used to assist diverse learners. I believe it is very important to incorporate this into the classroom and to ensure all learners get the same quality of education. As I learned from a previous class, it's pertinent to establish equity in the classroom, and assistive technology is one of the many ways an instructor can "level the playing field". As a future educator, I can implement this into my classroom by ensuring all my students have the adequate tools to succeed in my class, and the outside world. I would also schedule check-ins to guarantee my students success. 

Before this class, I had never used Diigo. At first, I was confused on how to navigate the site, because I had never done it before. However, after using it for some time, I find it helpful to bookmark sites, putting post-it notes, and linking it to my group. I've warmed up to using Diigo, which is nice because I did not think I would be accustomed to it. In my future class, I will try to implement this when I do discussions with my students so they can all participate and understand their peers ideas.

As technology evolves with time, the users of it can take advantage of it to make their lives easier and more effective. As a future educator, I understand I will have to evolve to keep up with technology in my classroom. As I read Jennifer Gonzalez's blog, I saw two new applications that really intrigued me. The first is called AhaSlides, which is making any presentation interactive and appealing to the users. It allows the students to interact with their teachers lesson by using their phones or devices. The second one was called TalkingPoints. This application allows for teachers and parents to message each other and communicate past their language barrier. For example, the teacher can send a message in English and the parents can respond in Spanish. Then, when the messages are sent, they are translated into the recipients preferred language.

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/6-ed-tech-tools-to-try-in-2023/