Blog #4

My Prior Online Learning Experience

The first online class I ever took was a photography course my freshman year of high school. It was a graduation requirement for me to take an online class, although I will admit that I do not remember which LMS was used for the course. Since enrolling at FSU, I have take numerous online courses all of which have been asynchronous. Although fellow students and myself have always been encouraged to roughly follow a schedule, many of these online classes have allowed students to do the course work at their own pace. In our current online class, we have weekly due dates, however students are able to find time within their weekly schedule to do their work. Personally, I believe that there are benefits to learning in both the classroom and online. I believe that whether or not an online course works for a student is highly dependent on the personality of said student. Online learners often do better if they have good time management skills, dedication, and are better suited to learn by themselves with the right materials and some assistance.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

From my understanding, open educational resources are essentially informative, educational resources that can be accessed for free. This allows teachers and students everywhere, including even at poorly funded schools, to be able to access the newest and most relevant information to greatly improve their education. OERs are also associated with five rights which are retain, reuse, review, remix, and redistribute. The link that I am sharing below is to an OER called "Introduction to Technology Integration for Educators" which goes over how K-12 teachers can integrate technology in ways that help all different types of learners. I found this extremely interesting and relevant to our course.

https://www.oercommons.org/courses/introduction-to-technology-integration-for-educators

Newsletter Design

Creating a newsletter using Word was a new experience for me. I have had marketing roles in the past in which I have created newsletters, but I am much more familiar with doing so on websites such as Canva or S'more. I think it was a great experience to use Word instead because it allows a lot of creativity, however I certainly did have to be more creative myself since there are extremely limited templates on Word. I learned how to create banners (I created a chalk board banner for my newsletter) as well as many other simple but important skills such as shading a section. In the future, I hope to create a more colorful and visually appealing newsletter as I have on other platforms which I believe will become more possible with experience in doing so on Word.

Comments

I commented on Olvia's blog post. I focussed on her comments about her prior experience with online courses. I connect with her personal experience and suggested a couple of ways in which I believe that online courses can almost mimic the same effect as the classroom effect while still allowing the benefit of taking classes online. I also commented on Hayley's blog. In this comment I focussed more on the benefits or OER.

Blog #3

Microsoft Word in My Educational Experience

Microsoft Word has been an extremely helpful technological tool throughout my educational experience, and it is therefore the software that I am most comfortable with. In elementary school, I did not use Microsoft Word myself for, but my teachers certainly used it to create assignments, quizzes, tests, notes, etc. for my peers and me. In middle school I began typing essays and other assignments using Microsoft Word which continued into high school and college becoming more frequent over the years. I began to learn different formatting styles such as MLA and APA starting in middle school, but especially in high school. At FSU, my use of Microsoft Word has expanded as I have been pushed to use more design features rather than just typing an essay. Throughout the later years of education, teachers continued to use Microsoft Word for similar purposes as in my earlier years. I expect to learn even more throughout this class about how teachers can use this software in a beneficial way such as the newsletters we are currently designing.

Copyright & Fair Use

When I was younger, I understood that I should never plagiarize someone else’s work because we were constantly reminded of the honor code in school. However, I was confused as to how to properly use the information I had researched when writing papers. Over the years, I learned how to paraphrase, quote, and cite sources. I also learned much more extensive information about fair use while studying for my degree in Editing, Writing, & Media. Fair use laws do make it much easier for students to use various sources so long as it pertains to their educations. All of these are skills that I would strive to teach my students so that they are knowledgeable of what they can and cannot do. I would, of course, adjust these lessons according to the age group of my students.

Technology Implementation Issues

Academic Dishonesty:

Unfortunately, I feel that academic dishonesty is rather common. A potential solution to this problem is using websites such as Turnitin which check students’ work to ensure that it is not plagiarized. I would use a website like this for typed assignments such as research papers and essays. If a student did not pass the Turnitin standards, I would have a discussion with them and allow them the opportunity to fix and resubmit the assignment while ensuring that they fully understand how to properly use sources while adding their own ideas to write a strong paper. I would also try to encourage students to want to do their own work by instilling a passion for learning and explaining that they will only learn from an assignment by doing the work themselves.

Cyberbullying:

Technology in the classroom can help immensely by making both teaching and learning more effective. However, it can potentially have some downfalls such as cyberbullying. I think the most important solution to this problem is to stop it before it starts. I believe that as a teacher, it is extremely important to set standards and expectations for netiquette before students begin using online platforms. If a student disregards these expectations, I believe it is necessary to have a zero tolerance policy since no student should have to feel bullied or insecure in their learning environment.

Comments
I commented on Liz's blog post. In this comment, I focussed on copy right and fair use and recommended a video that really helped me when I was first learning about this. I also commented on Mallory's post. For this comment, I focussed more on the technology implantation issues, especially her comment on lack of funding.

Twitter Information

Hey everyone! My twitter handle is @AlinaEME2040

Here is the link as well: https://twitter.com/AlinaEME2040

Blog #2

What influences teachers & students to use technology in the classroom?

I believe that there are many factors that influence teachers and students to use technology. One influence is the mere fact that we live in the 21^stcentury which is an extremely digital age. We are surrounded by technology and have recognized that it can be extremely beneficial, especially in the classroom setting. I also think the school system itself is an influence. Teachers are encouraged to keep digital records of their students’ achievements and grades and attendance must be reported digitally. Students are even required to use online learning platforms in school.

ISTE Standards for Educators

One of the ISTE standards for educators that resonated with me was “Leader”. I truly believe that allowing students to hold leadership positions empowers them and encourages them to try their hardest. I think it shows students that their educator believes in them. I work with young students (ages 3-7) and even leadership positions such as line leader and door holder are very meaningful to the students. One standard that I feel is currently out of my skill set is “Citizen”. Although I agree that I it is important to encourage students to be positive and kind, I am unsure of how to make them mindful and act responsibly in the digital world.

Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

According to the podcast, a digital native is a person “who have grown up knowing technology” whereas a digital immigrant are individuals who were introduced to technology in their teens or adult years and chose to adopt it. Throughout my educational experience, I did notice differences regarding technology between my teachers and myself. All of my teachers did adopt technology in some way even if only to record grades and make/print worksheets and tests. However, the older the teacher was, the less willing they were to elect to use technology. Younger teachers seemed to embrace the technology more but would still struggle with certain things that I did not struggle with since I was so familiar with it because the technology had been around my entire life. I do think that my generation will still become “digital immigrants” in the sense that we will be less familiar with new advances in technology than younger generations are because technology constantly changes.

Comments

I commented on Jacobs blog post. In this comment I focussed on what he said about the influences that educators and students have to use technology in the classroom. I really admired the strong arguments he made, but added my own views as well! I also commented on Mallory's blog post. I was intrigued by the comments she made about the ISTE Standards for Educators and was curious about how she thought being a facilitator of technology could be something negative which is something I would like to explore.

Blog #1

Prior Experiences Using Technology:

My experience with technology is relatively vast as I have grown up in a very technologically heavy period of time. I have a lot of experience with programs such as Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Prezzi, etc. which I have used for school assignments. I am also familiar with Canva which I have used to create flyers and social media posts for a marketing position with a non-profit organization. I also consistently use various social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat.

What I Hope to Learn:

With my time in EME2040, I would really like to learn how technology can benefit students in their efforts to learn new information. I think that technology can be used in many creative ways in the classroom that makes teaching easier and more effective. I am excited to learn some new ways to use technology to create a better learning environment that adheres to numerous learning styles to ensure every student benefits.

My Learning Style

According to this assessment, my learning style does not heavily lean one way or another. I only have a mild preference toward intuitive, global, and verbal. I was intrigued to find that I am more of a verbal learner, because I always thought of myself as a visual learner. These results were expected because many study styles work for me whether it is reading the textbook, watching videos, or using flashcards. The one place I had a moderate preference was for reflective rather than active learning.