#8 - Sports Psych, Bloom's Taxonomy, Professional Development

Because the equipment was made for sports, it is kind of a reach to use it for teaching purposes. You could use the EMG to understand the physiological and bodily response to stimuli and gauge people's true reactions to stress and other stuff. The big board with flashing lights and numbers that tested simultaneous cognitive and physical response (don't remember what it was called) could be used for autistic kids. But, like I said, it is sort of a reach and not super practical. It is all very expensive and I think money would be better used elsewhere (on technology specifically for teaching and learning in the classroom environment.)

Bloom's taxonomy promotes analyzing and and evaluating rather than just remembering facts. PowerPoint could be used at every level.
Remembering: lists, descriptions, names, diagrams and visual graphics could be put on slides to read and take notes on
Understanding: teacher can elaborate from the slide by explaining the idea or concept. Links and videos can be added to the slides to elaborate as well
Applying: real world situations, links to journals or articles, or discussion questions posted on slides
Analyzing: insert a prezi in the powerpoint to break it down into parts to analyze or make graphs, tables and charts in the power point
Evaluating: directions for an experiment, hyperlink Kahoot
Creating: make their own powerpoint

According to the podcast, professional development is the "life long learning that teachers engage in." Chapter 12 describes how learning needs change over time and new methods of teaching are required. Technology has greatly impacted teacher development. Technology has now enabled opportunities to communicate with other teachers, parents and students and also for teachers to learn from other teachers. Blogs, webinars, diigo, Twitter, and many others contribute to this. Below is a screenshot of a website that would keep teachers (and others) up to date with the technology trends.

#7 - Assistive Technology, Website Design, Diigo

According to the podcast, "adaptive or assistive technologies are technologies that help people with disabilities more effectively use computing equipment." Students could use voice recognition software instead of typing if unable to type or they can use technologies like brail printers if they are blind. I am quite familiar with the brailler in which they are referring to in the podcast. It is like a typewriter that produces raised bumps on the paper so that the people that are blind can read their completed work. Every summer I act as a voluntary mentor at a developmental sports camp (for children that are visually impaired) called Camp Abilities. I watched and assisted the kids as they typed "thank you" letters to all the donors of the camp that contributed food, equipment, and money. It was so awesome to see how efficient those machines are! That technology has dramatically increased educational opportunities for children that are visually impaired. Another piece of assistive technology they used was their canes to help navigate and prevent collisions. Since their sight is limited, and for some completely gone, they need the canes to feel their way around the world and stay safe. I take a particular interest in this subject because I plan to be an O&M instructor (orientation and mobility.) My job will be to teach them how to properly use this adaptive technology and many others. I don't foresee any specific challenges for adaptive technology in my classroom because I assume that FSU will prepare me to teach effectively and be well informed. The only challenge that comes to mind is the lack of money in the educational system and the possible limitation of how much assistive technology will be available to the students. From what I have been told, the technology is quite expensive.

To be honest, at first I completely hated the assignment. I had no idea where to even begin. But the further I dove into it, the more fun I had with it. I learned how to do everything through trial and error. I spent an enormous amount of time on my website and am pretty happy with my results. Here is a screenshot of one of my favorite pages of the website:

I couldn't figure out how to use the tockify thing though. I ended up using google calendar because it was too confusing. I think that the website would have been better if weebly offered some directional advice for first timers. I really liked how many options were available for the website though. I tried every button just to see what it did (which is probably why it took so long to complete.) The YouTube option was of particular interest to me. I thought that was a useful addition. Now that I know how to use weebly, it will be a lot more easy to do in the future. I plan on using it for my class websites in the future. 

Diigo was also a completely new experience for me. Everything we learned in class was new to me. I thought the annotation of articles was really cool. I can see that being of great use to both students and teachers. I also preferred books over the internet because I could write in them and highlight stuff to help study but now with diigo, websites offer the same capabilities. As a teacher, diigo is great to collaborate and share websites that prove beneficial to teaching. As a teacher, I can give and share ideas to students and teachers. It is an interactive website that will be very useful for future use in the classroom. Technology is great!

#6 - Class Pages, Technology Sandbox, and Technology/Professional Responsibilities

I visited the website for the Walker School.  It seems to be a charter school that includes preschool, lower school, middle school, and upper school.  The public view of the website contains information about each course, teacher, events going on, activities involved, the curriculum, and the goal of the class. It contains a positive view of the school and presents the academia as prestigious.  Below is a screenshot of one of the class pages.

Productivity tools are important to grade students' work, plan and document lessons, and communicate with students and colleagues.  According to the podcast, productivity tools are those that "help you complete every day tasks a little better."  I will use the productivity tool Microsoft Office to help me in the future of teaching.  I will also use diigo and Evernote to help plan and document lessons.  Google calendar could be beneficial as well. Online rubrics and spreadsheets will be utilized to assist in the grading process. I will use SMART boards and 3D printers if accessible in the school I choose to enhance the learning experience for my students. There is so much technology available it excites me! I can't wait to use all of these awesome tools and programs to help me teach!

At the Sandbox field trip I discovered a ton of cool and helpful pieces of technology.  One in particular that stood out to me was the goggles and computer screen that presented a 3D, lifelike experience.  I can't remember what it was called but I googled it and a brand called Oculus popped up. I guess what I used was pretty similar to the Oculus. This could allow virtual field trips anywhere around the world! It eliminates the financial and time constraint that holds students back from visiting educational places like the Vatican and the Colosseum in Rome. The opportunities are endless! I also loved the SMART board.  It is so much more efficient and convenient than the white board. I do service learning for another class at FSUS and they use the SMART boards there so I get to see it in action. The students seem to love it as well. The teacher used it for math lessons, writing lessons, and many others. The SMART board is definitely useful for every day teaching. 

ILP Design - Prezi: Timeline of Educational Technology

I created a prezi to present the timeline of major technological advancements made in the classroom. This stresses the importance of technology and shows the progress we have already made thus far. This prezi excites me for the future technology yet to come!
Here is a link to the prezi:
http://prezi.com/1snokda2ngk0/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
Here is a screenshot of the prezi:

#5 - Web 2.0 and Technology Advancement

Web 2.0 allow users to interact and share with each other.  According to the podcast, teachers use YouTube to show students relevant videos and enhance their learning, blogs to post updates and announcements.  Blogs can also be used for student publishing and teachers can controls to monitor use. Wikis are also used to collaborate work.  Twitter can be used to follow political and public figures and learn from them.  Diigo can be used to share resources and take notes from them.  All of these are interactive and great for the learning experience.  Other social media websites may prove less beneficial.  Instagram and Facebook may not be as useful in the classroom.  YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, and Wikis are only helpful if used appropriately and monitored by the teacher.

When I am a teacher I will probably use TED to assist me with my lessons.  They are talks by important figures that discuss technology, design, and other things going on in the world.  It contains many videos and links on all kind of important topics.  The use of video would enhance the learning experience.  The link to this is: https://www.ted.com/

Personally, I think that Open content holds the most promise,  All of the technological advancements bring hope for the future but this one intrigues me the most.  According to the book, Open content is "content that is developed through collaboration and interaction through social media rather than by a few knowledgeable authorities."  If monitored and integrated appropriately, it could greatly enhance the learning experience! The book states that open content has already "[significantly impacted]...the classroom."  I think MOOCS are also super useful and exciting.  MOOCS are massive open online courses that provide learning opportunities.  Just reading about all of these technological advancements gets me so pumped to be a teacher some day! I hope that I can use these effectively in my classroom in the future.

#4 - Digital Divide, Active Learning Software, and Web Evaluations

I am not entirely sure what the question means by "early course experiences."  I'm assuming that it means my use through the class since that is what we have been using for experience.  If this is the case then I would say that I have been interacting with classmates and Re-tweeting a lot of information about technology and interesting topics that arise.  If this question is referring to my use prior to the class then my response differs.  My personal twitter has been used to interact with peers on a more personal basis and to stay in the loop about upcoming events inside of school and outside of school.  These are important in the future as well.  Twitter can be used to inform and interact with students and colleagues in reference to upcoming school events, politics, technology advancement, and basically anything.  It is a fantastic source of communication.

The digital divide, according to the podcast, is used to describe "the gap of people who do and do not have access to technology."  Not everyone has access to a computer or the internet.  The students that do have access to computers and internet are believed to have a greater chance for educational achievement than those who do not.  This is because the students with computers have access to academic software.  According to Teaching and Learning with Technology, a few types of academic software are desktop publishing, graphics, reference, tutorials, drill-and-practice, educational games, simulations, authoring systems, special needs, and integrated learning systems.  The active learning software helps the teachers teach and the students learn effectively.

It is important to check the author's credentials (contactability), whether is is neutral or bias, content (accurate, current, appropriate for audience), design (pleasing to the eye and clear), and technical elements (level of difficulty to navigate and speed of loading) when evaluating a website.  It is also important to check the stability, URLs, and advertising when using a website for teaching.  Personally, I look at the domain of a website, the year it was publlished, the author, and the content when evaluating how good a website it.  I also try to find a website that has condensed and organized information so I'm not spending hours reading it.  Pictures, diagrams and other visuals are also very attractive during an evaluation.  Web evaluations are important so that you can be sure that you are receiving accurate, clear, and credible information for the right audience and purpose.