This week I began reading about the 3 Tech blogs that I chose.
In the blog, Emerging Ed Tech, this week's article was entitled, "In Today's Digital World, Industries of all Types Must Transform in Order to Thrive". What I found the most interesting was what this blogger viewed to be the future of higher education. Universities and colleges are encouraged to move towards the future and develop new dynamic and compelling programs embracing technology. Smaller "micro-degrees" and more opportunities for online learning could open the path towards a future with a better handle on technological advances.
A part that I agree with was the statement on digital fluency. Many school are incorporating a focus on digital literacy, but the best school are making fluency part of the their school's outcome process.
The blog, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning gave names of recommended apps in the areas of Math, Social Studies, Science and Coding. This week, the school in which I work is conducting pedagogical meetings. I find this quite relevant because a lot of discussion was placed on projects including more than one subject. For example, in 5th grade, I will be working with the Science teacher on creating a class project that includes both of our subjects. Any of the Science apps listed could be used to enrich both of our lessons. Perhaps something involving the app called "Night Sky" to explore astronomy or "Explorium: Space for Kids" to learn about planets could lead to an interesting project.
At a glance I was a bit disappointed in the first suggestion from Free Tech for Teachers. The blogger discusses Padlet as a tool for mapping. Initially I thought that I had chosen poorly since this was a suggestion that I didn't think I needed. Once I opened the website and started exploring examples on my own, I discovered the wealth of possibilities that come with Padlet. (See examples on their Padlet Blog Page.) The great thing about Padlet is that you're not just making maps, you can also make boards, webpages, and other documents that are user friendly and easy to contribute to.
we'll be playing around with Padlet in one of the future units
ReplyDeleteWow, padlet sounds like a really cool app! I'd never heard about it, but the idea of an app that allows stundents to explore and describe their environment seems really cool.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree that technology in classrooms should be more encouraged and used. I feel like students nowadays are interested only when you turn on the barcode. Also, this Padlet app seems cool. It can help them increase their knowledge alongside with their English.
Sounds great! I also had a look at the Educational Technology blog and am excited to check out the apps they posted. Let me know if you end up using any that are helpful!
ReplyDeleteSarah, great blog. You actually got me interested in checking out padlet which I just did. I also didn't get it at first but once I started exploring the examples, I became really interested. I'd love to use it somehow. Thanks for pointing it out and for your inspiration in general!!!
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