While reading the ELA technology standards, I realized that most of the standards are geared toward grades beyond the level of school I aim to teach. I feel pretty confident in my ability to teach those standards that are meant for kindergarten to third grade students, because they are, of course, rather basic concepts. The standards for 11-12 under W/WHST.8 "Use Multiple Sources" are something I feel I would need more preparation with before teaching them to students. These standards are for building the ability to "assess the strengths and limitations of sources in terms of task, purpose, and audience; avoid over-reliance on any one source." I find that I sometimes have a hard trouble following these standards in my own schoolwork, so I wouldn't feel confident teaching these habits to students without more guidance first. The podcast for this week provided a good tool to keep in mind for judging the strengths and weaknesses of an online source. The acronym ABCDT stands for Author, Bias, Content, Design, and Technical Elements, which are all important things to consider before using a website as an academic resource.
Classroom Software/Applications and Digital Citizenship
I was honestly surprised by the amount of websites/applications that I found in the book -- I've gotten in the habit of not expecting much relevant information from a textbook. The application that jumped out at me most was ClassDojo. I loved finding that in the book because the elementary school classroom that I mentored in last semester utilized this program and I'd forgotten the name of it. I think ClassDojo is an awesome way to keep students' behavior in line because the visual and auditory elements of the point system involved give students incentive for staying on task. The teacher I worked with last semester created a reward system with ClassDojo where students who earned a certain amount of points by the end of the grading period got to participate in a small party (we all know kids go crazy for a party). I also liked the idea of using the programs Edmodo and Kidblog. Edmodo sounds like a great way to keep up a network with all of your students' parents. The ability to house digital homework, calendars, and announcements all in one place is very helpful! I think that Kidblog sounds extremely cool because it creates a place for students to journal or practice creative writing, while also giving teachers a place to teach "netiquette" to their students. If the students are commenting on each other's posts, you can teach them how to be respectful and polite in an online community. Kidblog could be used to teach many other aspects of digital citizenship as well, such as teaching students to credit any pictures they want to include in the journal post, reminding them to "think before posting," and helping them learn how to navigate the web. I think perhaps the most useful part of using Kidblog would be the opportunity to help students learn how to create a safe online presence (i.e. not giving out any personal information) within a closed network.
Newsletter Design Skills
This assignment definitely allowed me to become better acquainted with aspects of MS Word that I rarely use. It also reinforced my detest for some of the ways MS Word functions. Some things are really made more difficult than they should be. Nevertheless, all of the trial and error I went through with formatting different parts of my newsletter was a great learning experience and now I should be able to do it quicker and easier the next time I create one. I really don't like the fact that it won't let you simply format columns within a text box; that was frustrating, but I found a way around it. I also don't like that it won't give you the option to wrap text around an inserted photo in a text box, but I found a way around that as well. I was annoyed, but not defeated by Word. Getting through this assignment will help my in the future because, when I need to make a newsletter for my actual classroom, I will have undergone the necessary practice for creating an aesthetically pleasing newsletter.
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