Blog Journal #10

     I knew of these PowerPoint games previously, but prior to this assignment, I had no idea how they could've possibly been made. As it turns out, it's surprisingly simple to add hyperlinks to elements on a slide and disable the linear navigation. The Jeopardy game we played in class was really fun for me to host, and I was already getting inspiration for my project. What I decided to make was a "Who wants to be a millionaire" game with many of the same techniques.

    As I have stated before, I have mostly taken this course to fulfill a technology requirement in my major. As a result, not many of the topics presented in class, including on other students' blogs really had me that invested in them. There is one exception to this, and that is how technology is being integrated far more into classrooms of any grade level. This phenomenon is inevitable, and will only continue to expand as time goes on.

    Speaking of, I have already learned a lot about PowerPoint that I never even considered before, but now that I've completed assignment 5, I kind of want to learn even more about it. Maybe I could learn how to make a choose-your-own-adventure style game, or different game shows. The possibilities from what I've seen are virtually endless. It would probably require a somewhat steep learning curve though.

Blog Journal #9

     I can say with certainty that I have been in far worse courses than EME2040, though I can't say I'll be an educator in the future. I like that we used several resources that even I wasn't aware of, and were allowed to be creative with some. On the other hand, I'm not the biggest social media person, so the Twitter assignments weren't all that engaging or enjoyable for me personally. I can't really think of what would improve the classroom experience, other than combining technology with in-person meeting.

    OER stands for Open Educational Resources. Put simply, they are teaching, learning, and research materials that are intentionally created to be free on the user's end to allow accessibility regardless of their income. Rather than just one OER, how about a site that has several of them like OER Commons. This is a public digital library of open educational resources all neatly organized by subject, grade level, etc.https://www.oercommons.org/

    I have used PowerPoint many times before, but I still managed to learn a few new things. Most notably, how to record me during the presentation, although I kinda wish that PowerPoint made clear that each individual slide had a short windup time before it would actually record. The only thing I didn't really like about this assignment, is the fact that no one else gets to see the presentations that we create. Perhaps we could've saved a day in class for that to happen, but it's not a huge deal overall.

Bitmoji

 

Blog Journal #8

     Before my web design assignment, I had zero experience designing my website. However, now I can apply many of the skills I've learned in my own life. I made sure that I followed the CRAP principles (despite the unfortunate name), to make sure it was easy to read, easy to navigate, and aesthetically pleasing. At first, Weebly was a little confusing to learn, but once you get the hang of it, it's as natural as breathing to design your own site.

    At first, I got off on the wrong foot with Diigo, as when we first tried to use it, the site flat-out didn't work at all. I couldn't log in or complete any assignments related to it until several days later. Now that it does work for me, I don't have much to really say about it. It's kind of just a site that exists to me, and I didn't find it particularly helpful.

    I've said this before, but it bears repeating and grinding into dust. Technology has been and will continue to be a major driving force in the education world, and instructors need to be on top of it at all times. Otherwise, they might find themselves getting left in the dust and their students may end up falling behind due to not having the necessary technology to progress. I also found a site called EdTech which prominently shows the latest in educational technology and how instructors can use them to their full potential. https://edtechconferences.london/

Blog Journal #7

    I had a look on https://stjaneschool.com/teacher-pages/ through a few teacher pages, and they mostly show similar information. Usually, some personal info and contacts to that particular teacher when you first select them. Then on their actual pages, some upcoming events on their classes. Otherwise, nothing too overly personal here, particularly with the students in each class, revealing almost nothing about them.

    As I have made abundantly clear in the past, I am not, nor do I plan to become a teacher in the future. If I was to do so, however, there are a few productivity tools I would use. Weebly in particular is a great way to create my own personal website with contact information, limited personal info, and upcoming events. This could prove to be helpful, particularly with a technology class.

    I did not participate in the Twitter days of the week challenge, primarily because it just didn't interest me. I have heard of similar things on the platform before, but not exactly this. I've only heard of this exact challenge from this class where it was optional to partake in it. As for my thoughts on it, I don't have anything particularly positive or negative to say about it, other than it's just not really my thing.

Blog Journal #6

    My initial experience with Diigo was not very good. Primarily because it simply didn't work when I first tried to use it. Now that I have actually gotten the site to work, I don't really have any strong opinion toward it. I don't really picture myself using it a great deal in the future, but I don't feel like my time was wasted with it either.

    So far I have only really done blogging as part of this class. Because of that, I don't have a strong opinion on whether or not I like blogging either. I haven't really learned a whole lot, besides how to use this one specific blogging site. This is also not something I can picture myself using a lot in the future.

    As for a Web 2.0 source I would like to use in future classrooms, that would probably be Khan Academy. The biggest reason for this is that I actually used it when I first started using technology to learn in 6th grade, though pretty much exclusively for math classes. Since then, it has been consistently updated year after year, and still going strong today with a variety of subjects to learn. My only true complaint is that it's not the most interactive site in the world, though the videos they provide do all have comment sections, so there's that.

Blog Journal #5

    I would not describe myself as a social media type, so my experience with Twitter has been minimal to the point where the only reason I even got an account was that it was a requirement in the class. I haven't, nor do I plan to interact with many people on the platform unless it was a requirement. Despite the drama surrounding it, I don't have anything against Twitter personally. It's just not really my thing in general.

    There's no denying that there is a digital divide in the world, between those who use technology every second that they're awake, and those who would be lucky to use it at all. There are several definite causes, such as differences in income. There are many families who upgrade their phones annually when they really don't need to, and others who have to share a single laptop, if they even have one. There are plenty of other causes as well that get controversial and political, so I won't go any further with that.

    As for academic software I would want to implement, I can't really say this with any sort of promise because education isn't my major, but if it was, I would like to implement some of the programs we're using in this class. Canva is a big one, particularly for student-designed flyers due to its ease of use and multitude of options at their disposal. I would also absolutely implement Kahoot in some way, simply because it's fun both for the instructor and the students. Otherwise, I'm not sure how I would go about this, because once again I'm not a teacher nor do I plan to be at this time.