McKenna's Exploration into Education Technology

 My early experiences with Twitter include scrolling through the education hashtag and commenting on posts. I haven’t used Twitter since the start of this class, so I’m not all that confident with the interface, but the more I use it the better I am! I have been communicating with new and past teachers and looking through some of their suggestions for different learning strategies. Communicating and connecting on Twitter is much easier than by the usual way, which is just by chance through the people that you know. I’ll be using Twitter in my career to connect with other teachers and create a supportive network where teachers can share information and news with each other. The digital divide discusses the technology disparity between richer and poorer areas and the effects on students. With a lack of technology from a young age, students have less access to supportive networks that are able to aid in student learning, like YouTube or educational platforms like Khan Academy. A lack ...

The ELA Technology Standards, standing for English Language Arts, is a federal Common Core Standard for teachers that outlines how to use technology to enhance reading, writing, speaking, and language abilities for students. I feel like I could handle many of the standards for lower class grades with my current knowledge, but the further you rise in grade level the more trouble I would have. The 11-12 grade standards are mainly about utilizing different forms of media to write papers, and I have a lot of experience with that. The one I would have the most issues with is the first standard that describes how teachers would clarify trouble words to students. Although I think that I have a good knowledge of stem words, I don’t have that big of a vocabulary! So I would have a difficult time explaining words to my students without looking it up. On CPALMS Educator Toolkit, there are many resources for educators to use, including lesson plans, educational videos and tutorials. It’s funny, be...

  Copyright is when a piece of intellectual work is protected from use without the express permission of the creator. Fair use is similar to copyright; the only difference is that it allows users to copy intellectual copy if it is being used for educational purposes. In both instances, credit must be given to the creator. Educators especially have to be careful when it comes to obeying copyright and fair use laws because they frequently use the intellectual property of others to aid in class, like photocopying textbook pages or playing videos. Teachers must lead by example when it comes to obeying these laws so that their students will be aware of them and follow them as well. What I would do is lead a lesson about these laws at the beginning of the school year, and then have students create bibliographies whenever they submit an assignment that requires the use of outside sources. I will also hold myself accountable to these rules and cite my sources with any presentation or ass...

 Using MS Word has always been an eventful experience. In elementary school and middle school, I would have to use it a lot because that's what my family had on our shared computer. Once I was introduced to Google docs, however, I never turned back; it’s way more user friendly and you can access your documents on any laptop or computer you have. This sounds like it would be in an advertising commercial, but the switch to Google Docs in ninth grade was so easy that I never want to go back to using Word. The ISTE Standards for Educators is meant to encourage teachers to integrate new technology in the classroom and inspire students to learn technology literacy. The standard that is most meaningful to me is being a leader in education technology, specifically one sub branch that states teachers should promote equal access to technology for diverse student populations, which is a real problem today. Many lower income schools cannot afford new, fast-developing education technology; they...

 Hello!! My name is McKenna Hagerty and I'm from Orlando, Florida, but I am currently studying at Florida State University in Tallahassee. I'm a freshman with a major in English Education and a minor in Philosophy, and this blog was created to track my progress in my Education Technology class. I throughly enjoy learning not only school-related topics, but also learning various hobbies. I move fast through my passions; over the summer, I created a scrapbook of my senior year, got really into reading, and picked up competitive gaming. Right now I'm mainly focused on school, but I still enjoy drawing and bullet-journaling. My prior experience in education technology is very limited. The programs I do know I am very proficient in, like Canvas, Group me, Zoom, and Google Classroom. None of my teachers employed any technology in the classroom, other than the occasional Kahoot game. I'm eager to learn what I can about technology and hopefully I will be able to use some of the...