Sophia EME2040 Class Blog

Individually, I discovered a website called Education Week, which I had never heard of before. It offers really useful links to subject specific development websites. It also give a teacher forum where teachers form around the world can interact and give advice and opinions on certain topics. One interesting aspect of the website was the new feed that allows teachers to stay updated on the different trends in education. From others Diigo bookmarks, I found websites about TED Talks and LinkedIn. TED Talks allow for educational professional to share information about their field or research with the educational community through video. It covers a wide range of topics from just data gathered from students to new ways teachers can communicate with parents and other important development in education. LinkedIn is a sharing website, wherein teachers can share presentations, opinions, and what they found to work effectively in the classroom. LinkedIn, also offer for teachers to communicate w...

      Adaptive technologies are used in the classroom to help the educational process of exceptional students, by assisting their unique needs. Some exceptional students include physically and mentally disabled, gifted honors students, and linguistically diverse students. Adaptive technology aids disabled students by accommodating to their needs, like a screen reader for a blind student, StickyKeys to help those with motor handicaps, and high-interest low-vocabulary books for the mentally disabled. In terms of helping gifted students, adaptive technology allows them to work at a pace that keeps them learning and focused, as opposed to getting distracted in an average classroom setting. For the linguistically diverse, adaptive technology helps them learn new languages and interpret new cultural material through language learning software like ESL Tower. I have used some of these technologies when I was younger, because I had a speech disability that kept me from speaking i...

While working individually, I found a very interesting article on screen readers. I have heard of screen readers before, but I ever knew the logistics of how they worked or the different styles offered; however, after today I found out that there are two types, verbal and Braille, and they adapt to a number of different processing programs. Also, I learned that they can also vary for different languages and translate a screen's content to the language of the user. When watching the presentations, I learned about the different strategies for teaching exceptional students. In my presentation, I learned about devices used for students with visual and motor disabilities, like StickyKeys function. From other presentations, I learned about how technology can help gifted students work at their own pace while still being part of the class. After looking at the different Diigo bookmarks, I discovered many applications to accommodate students, including Audible and Go Play for audio books.

I have learned so much from my experience on Twitter. I never expected the application to be as useful as it has been to me. I’ve learned a lot about the benefits of social networking for education, like how sharing information can really open a teacher’s mind to new techniques or how to use different technologies to supplement their lessons. One thing I found to be particularly interesting that I saw on Twitter was an account that once tweeted out a link to websites where teachers can submit applications for grants specified for technology and could receive advice on writing their proposal. I never would have even known where to begin on grant applications, but social interaction allowed for me to find a starting point. One issue I have experienced, however, is the struggle of deciding whether or not to trust an account. When using a website, it is easy to find out if it is reliable, by using the strategies we have learned in class, but when using Twitter, it is difficult to tell if ...

Today, I learned about an application called Wunderlist. Basically, this tool is used for time management and to-do list making, which can be very helpful throughout the day to keep the teacher on top of things and keep the class on track. The application offers reminders and easily edited task lists, so a teacher can be notified of important, upcoming tasks and quickly make a change to individualize their schedule. I also learned about how to communicate with others through discussion and assignment while using the product. The features of this product can be really useful in remembering tasks and ensuring you complete them in a timely manner. While viewing other people's bookmarks and annotations, I learned about other really helpful tools to a teacher, specifically Unplag. Unplag is a document reader that checks the page for plagiarism. What I found to be very interesting was that it can check the paper in different languages and give immediate feedback to both th...

Group activity: Sophia Gee and Jacque Langley Website Link:  https://www.fsus.school/Page/323 Contrast: Yes, the different elements stand out with the color contrast. The color contrast of heading color and the text color is easy to read and complement each other. Also, the headings and subheadings are easy to distinguish with the colors, like the green against white for the class title and the white against maroon for headings. Repetition: The fonts for the different elements on the page are repeated. The bold for headings and smaller font size for links and general information are consistent on the page. The font used on each page stays consistent throughout the entire page, but varies for each page. Alignment: The similar elements on the page are usually aligned ion the page. There are some instances wherein the subject matter is similar, but the spacing between it makes it seem that the ideas are separate. On a whole, however, similar ideas are sectioned into cat...

For my Individual Learning Project, I completed a Lynda.com tutorial on "Learning Infographic Design". The tutorial taught the basics of designing an infographic, including how to conduct research and planning before starting the infographic and how to create a "wireframe" as a base for it. I also learned how to create graphs in Adobe Illustrator and how to use universal symbols to communicate to a broad audience. The tutorial concluded with a discussion on how to share your infographic and how to market it to publications. It also described how to measure the success of the infographic, based on your goals of traffic success, social media shares, and backlinks from quality publications. The entire process was not as confusing as I thought it would be. I have never been very good at using technology, so I was apprehensive about the tutorial; however, I had nothing to worry about, because everything was explained in a manner that was straightforward and easy to under...

After looking at several elementary school teacher’s webpages, I noticed that many of them contained general information about the class and how it functioned. The pages I looked at were from the Florida State University Schools from the Kindergarten teachers. All the pages showed the policy and procedure sheets, a calendar of events, and resources for students and parents. The calendar gave a list of events for this month and allowed parents to also see future months so they can stay informed on field trip dates and important days in the classroom.   The resources listed on the page typically gave links to math and reading practice programs or lists of on level books. Most of them also offered teacher information, like the teacher’s email address or class phone numbers, so a parent can have easy communication. The page also gives newsletters and the goals for each quarter of the school year. The site chiefly is a way for parents to keep up to date on all the classroom’s happening...

This week's in-class activity really helped me improve my understanding of how to apply different Web 2.0 tools. I didn't think that Diigo would offer much promise to educators or classroom application, but this week's activity showed the possibilities. I didn't think that simple sharing was enough, so to be able to interact with the website and others on the website is invaluable to personalizing learning, which can really help students. Also, the possibilities of sharing valuable information with fellow instructors is an extremely useful tool for a teacher, as it allows them to improve their teaching based off of how others teach. This is not solely applied to Diigo, however, as all Web 2.0 applications can offer these extremely useful tools.

I think the most useful Web 2.0 tools are Twitter and Diigo. Twitter in an interesting, interactive way for students to gain insight into new educational trends and projects while interacting with other students. Through Twitter, students can develop their summarizing skills, learn how to use social media safely, and positively interact with others. Twitter allows students a way to explore things they are curious about and learn new information. I find Diigo to be a very useful tool because it lets students share their interests and helpful websites with a group through easy bookmarking. This website develops skills like organization, evaluate websites, and help others in this online sharing fashion. I think the least useful Web 2.0 tool is using Wikis. With Wikis students are able to post content and work in a collaborative atmosphere; however, the lack of control over what students see and the accuracy of the information makes this a questionable tool. Students could be exposed to in...