Blog Post 7

        Although I am not aware that I know anyone who has used adaptive technologies, I understand that they are a key part of helping students achieve in the classroom. Adaptive technologies such as speech-to-text software and screen reader software are helpful for students with physical and learning disabilities. Although these and other technologies are extremely advantageous for the student using them, they may pose a distraction to other students in the class, they may experience technical difficulties and not work properly, or the teacher may not be familiar with how they work and can't help the student use the technology.
      Working on the web page assignment has helped me learn how to critically view websites, to ensure that I am finding high-quality material to present to my students in the future. Through this assignment, I have learned that there are certain things that I need to look for in websites, such as the institution that published it, the relevancy of the content, and the currency of the content. This assignment was fairly easy to complete, but certain questions within the evaluation form seemed redundant.

                                                              Screenshot from our website  
      Working with Diigo has helped me learn how to critically view different web resources, to determine whether or not they will be an effective research tool. I also like the collaborative aspect of Diigo, and can see myself using this source in future research projects in school, especially in research-heavy graduate programs. In my own future classrooms, I would like to see my students use this resource to complete better research and to collaborate with one another on different projects.

Blog Post 6

       I visited a website for Ms. Molly Britton's high school English classes, from Mountain Ridge High School in Arizona. On her website, and the webpages of several other teachers from the school, there were links to a district calendar, the class syllabus, a brief teacher biography, and class times and descriptions.

      When I am teaching classes of my own, I plan on using many different technology tools to improve my productivity. I envision myself using Microsoft Excel as a way to track progress and grades of my students, and I will definitely use Microsoft PowerPoint and Word to present lessons and create activities for my students to complete. Bookmarking tools such as Diigo will allow me to find many different websites and sources that I can tag and take notes on, so I can make sure that I have the right web resources easily accessible to present in class, such as specific videos or websites that I think might be useful for my students. I also can definitely see myself using a calendar application such as Google Calendar. Using this application will allow me to combine my professional and personal calendars to avoid overbooking myself, and I can easily plan out an entire quarter or year's-worth of assignments and lesson plans so I can stay on track with the topics that I cover in class.
       In the tech sandbox, I thought that the use of the Smart Board was especially interesting, and I can see these as being some of the more practical technologies I could use when I teach an elementary class in the future. I liked that the Smart Board was interactive and could be accessible to students of different ability levels. I remember using the Smart Board when I was a student, and I always appreciated being able to learn using both the visual and kinesthetic styles using this technology, because it is so interactive. For example, I remember using the Smart Board technology to play Jeopardy-style games to review concepts and facts before a test or quiz. This helped me and my fellow students both enjoy learning and also get a very thorough review of the topic, and I can see myself implementing this method with my own students in the future.