Blog Journal 5

    I have never really used Twitter for the purposes of school-related education and personal learning networks (PLNs). Most of my experience with Twitter, I would describe as informational. I have used it previously to stay up to date with national and international news as well as explore some areas of discourse. In fact, about 3-4 years ago I used twitter a lot to follow journalists reporting on the Syrian civil war. I cold see twitter being beneficial in my future for possibilities such as developing a graduate school PLN, or even a specialized discourse for other. 

    As technology become a more integrated part of classroom and outside the classroom studies, the digital divide should be a growing concern for educators to address. I have firsthand witnessed the digital divide, as the rural, isolated area where my grandparents live did not have quick or reliable internet until recently. Many students in areas such as these do not have the same access to internet and technology as students in more urban, city environments where technological infrastructure is most developed. Therefore, teachers of these rural areas would have difficulty ensuring all students have access and exposure to education technology. Furthermore, internet and technology access also has a lot to do with economic privilege, even in urban environments. As a teacher, it may be difficult to plan lessons that integrate education technology if the class has unequal access to it. 

    I think application software would be best to introduce students to because there will be many uses for these softwares in their future, academically, professionally, and even personally. For example, every student should become familiarized with a word processor application because students will need that for future assignments throughout their academic career. Another interesting software I would teach students is FluidMath which is an application that converts handwriting to digital and allows students to digitally graph equations. I think this would be beneficial because it would prepare students for math-related education technology, such as those present in collegiate Math/computer labs, that use software to provide instant feedback. 

    Education badges are used to reward students for their accomplishment, ability, and interest in different learning environments. I remember badges being most commonly used in my primary education. For example, I think accelerated reader (AR) points are an interesting example of this. In my elementary school, students could take online quizzes about books they had read to earn points. The purpose of this was to reward students not just for reading but reading comprehensively. At the end of a quarter or semester students could trade in their accumulated points for "badges". I believe this also produced healthy competition among students while also encouraging them to read.