Classroom integration

Something that has always been really interesting to me is working with special needs students. I have volunteered in classrooms that are specifically designated to having only those kinds of students, but I have always wondered how classrooms are run with special needs students amongst the mix of regular paced students. I know that there are classrooms, especially in lower grades that are consisted of mixed students and some teachers have the luxury of having an aid who is there to assist students, but what if a teacher doesn't have that benefit? My biggest goal is working on reaching out to all students in my classroom and it is becoming very apparent that I very well could have students who struggle because of a disability in my classroom and I need to be prepared for that. This post is more geared towards being able to have a lot of ideas on how to reach out to all of my students and always having back up ideas ready for when one might fail. I think one of my best ways to continue to explore this would be to observe different classrooms that have these situations and get ideas from teachers who have the same goal as I do.

Exploring more about Prezi

I had some exposure to using Prezi in another class and wanted to play around with it a little more and explore the rest of my options and this was a perfect way to do that. I had made a very basic presentation while using it with the other class and realized that I can actually make very extravagant presentations with this technology. I think this would be great to use in the classroom for both teachers and for students. It would be simple for teachers to set up their entire lesson with this technology because there are so many tools and options that allow the teacher to do diverse things. If they need to include just some facts, bullet points, or sources they can easily type those out in the alloted space. If they need to include a link to a video, they can do that. They can also insert images. The coolest thing about this technology is that you can jump from place to place on the presentation, instead of just having to flip through it like a basic powerpoint. This could also be easy for students to use as well if they were putting a presentation together because since there are so many different tools, options, and themes, students can really make it their own and get creative. The tools are easy to use and do not require a lot of technology background knowledge to understand, therefore it could even be beneficial in lower grades.

I do not see any major downfalls with this technology because of its simple and easy to use features along with it being an upgrade from powerpoint. I think this would be a big advantage in the classroom because teachers would not have to stress about a complex way to gather their information and present it to the class. It is an easy way for teachers to break in to technology and make it more present in the classroom.

Twitter overload

I am becoming more familiar with using Twitter and actually am starting to really like it. I like that I can do status updates and not have to overload Facebook with all of that. One thing that I am catching on to is that people tend to do a lot of updating throughout the day and I never realized people had that much to voice to the world. :) I know most of us who are using Twitter in this class are ready to/close to being done with college and are beginning to transition in to the work world. I know that we all like to do funny updates sometimes and have inside jokes with others on Twitter, but I just keep wondering, where do the funny Tweets end and where do the professional ones begin?

Website struggle

I really like the idea of setting up your own website and have seen some of my other classmates create awesome looking ones with great layouts, however, I am having a hard time figuring mine out. I thought it would be a little bit simpler to use, but it is turning out to be harder than I thought. I wanted to do little things like add a "link" to my sidebar to direct followers to a new page that was still part of my website that just showed different information (ex: link to my lesson plan) and instead it only seems to let me do "new posts". I wonder if it is maybe just the google website page that I am using that is giving me problems and if I need to switch to a different site or if I am just missing some way on how to work the site.

Interesting eavesdropping...

I overheard my friend talking the other day saying something along the lines of "...with all of these modes of ways to put your opinion out there, it seems that everyone feels entitled to be a critic and I feel like I see more negative opinions than positive." The modes of technology for opinion output she was talking about were things like Twitter, facebook, bbm statuses, etc. What are others thoughts on this idea? Do you tend to see people just assuming the role of "critic" a lot more now that there are so many ways for them to express their opinion through technology?

How much is too much?

This course has definitely opened me up to a lot of technologies and resources that I never even knew existed and I do appreciate that it is "forcing" me to become familiar with a lot of new things, however, I had a thought cross my mind the other day and wanted to get others opinions on it. How much technology is too much technology? I have heard some people talk about technology overload and that our generation is becoming so reliant on it and part of me thinks that maybe being too reliant on technology could potentially be a bad thing because I am sure we have all seen flukes with technology and had our rough moments. On the other hand, I also see the increase use of technology as a positive because it is opening our world up to new experiences and faster/better ways of communicating. There have definitely been times where I have become a little overwhelmed with this course and thought to myself if so many websites, blogs, generators, etc were necessary and it actually almost gave me a little bit of anxiety at first, but I think if I just keep trying to increase my usage week by week, it won't seem as overwhelming and maybe that is how people need to react to all of the technology overload as well.

Prezi usage

Using a Prezi was so much fun and I have actually used it in a lot of my other classes now. I am working on making it my "go to" technology for when I want to do reports or try to create lesson plans for my CT. I think that the more I use this tech, the more familiar I am becoming with it! I think that everyone should at least attempt to use it, even just to play around with all of the features. I would like to see an updated version of this tech come out soon because I think it has potential to incorporate more features, such as sound, presentation effects, different fonts, etc.