Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Technology Can Be a Blessing Or a Curse...

Or at least that's how I feel sometimes. I do not hate technology by any means. In fact, it can be quite useful in many situations. But other times...


I use technology at my work (as a manager in retail), in school both as a teacher and a student, and in my personal life. I perhaps am not as tech-savvy as peers my age, but I always like to at least try out new technologies. For example, my friends kept going on about Snapchat so I downloaded the app, but a week later I deleted it. I just did not understand it and was not willing to put in the extra time trying to understand it. However, as a teacher I know it is important to incorporate technology and I have tried to become more open-minded in trying out new digital technologies. 



One such digital tool that I have come across is Padlet. I came across this in my Digital Literacy Strategies class and have enjoyed using it. It is a simple and easy to use as a teacher and as a student. It is a great way to have students post a short response, reaction, or idea about what they have read. They are able to add images or speech bits too, so it allows them to be creative in their responses. It is a great way to share the students' responses with the whole class without knowing who wrote what (so the students do no fear being judged). 

Just as teachers need to cognitively challenge their students with their lessons, they must also do the same with technology. It is important that you have them use technology that has them engaging in higher order thinking. Digital tools like Flashcardchallenge are great for having students focus on vocabulary, but does not challenge them to think critically about the material. Teachers need to incorporate a variety of digital tools into their lesson plans to make sure all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy is addressed. 

I just actually found out about a new digital tool last night, that I am excited to try out. It is called EDpuzzle. It is a free resource where you can edit youtube videos. You can trim clips so they are the length you want, trim out inappropriate scenes or sensor curse words, and you can add in questions that pop up as the video plays. A current teacher recommended this as a great way to edit videos that add value to the lesson, but ones you have concerns about the content. 

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