Blog Post #4

The people I interact the most with on Twitter are my fellow classmates and my teacher. Twitter has been pretty beneficial to me because it is something that is easy to check, it reminds me of things we have done in class and upcoming assignments, and it is a super fast way to ask my teacher questions. When I had a problem uploading an assignment to BlackBoard, I was able to DM my teacher off twitter and I instantly got a reply. I think that is the greatest tool about Twitter, how instant it is. Social Media is so popular in this day in age, that you have to keep up with it. This will be helpful in my future career because it will be something my students all use and like, making it easier for them to want to use it and making them more active. It's a great way to stay involved.

I believe digital divide is a big problem in schools. The number one reason being the social class disadvantage. Some students may have higher technology skills over other students because they have more tools at home to help them with it. Tools including: newer versions of technology, internet, parent support/knowledge themselves, etc. As a classroom teacher there could be a huge divide between students who can do the assignment with no difficulties at all and another set of students who don't know how to do the basics of the assignment. If this is the case, you would be caught up trying to figure out a good mixture of still making it interesting for the students who are advanced, but still making it do able for the students who aren't. A good strategy to help the students who need a little more help would be to set up types of "office hours" to explain and teach them more about technology and also giving them more time to practice. These office hours could be before or after school, or even during lunch or free time.

Since I am planning on being either a 1st or 2nd grade teacher, I think academic software would be the beneficial to me. Especially in lower grades, it's very important to be active while learning, so the kids can stay focus and want to learn. With academic software, there are many resourceful tools to help a teacher accomplish those goals. You can concept map, play games, make tutorials, have drill-and-practice software, etc. Those are great advantages to have in the classroom. One software I don't see myself using a lot is graphics software. It seems very beneficial for higher grades, but maybe a little too advanced for younger elementary school students.