Blog Journal 4

Experiencing a new side of twitter has shown me how beneficial it can be for anyone's professional career. I have learned so much in a little amount of time about other educators and the educational community within twitter. Not only is it a great way to form relationships with educators from other states, it has also been fun interacting with my peers about technology in education. I have interacted with educators about 'Augmented Reality' in the art classroom, which I thought was an incredible idea. I have also enjoyed the challenges from @eme2040, it is such a great way to engage with the class. Twitter, like I mentioned before, will be beneficial in my career because it will allow me to connect with other educators on the same school-related topics. As a teacher in the future, I'd love to share my ideas from teaching Kindergarten and I'd love to learn from others through twitter.

Digital divide can certainly build a great wall between students who have access to technology and students who do not. For students who do not have access to internet at home it can definitely affect their academic health. Most students have to use technology at school and homework is intended to be done majorly through a laptop and with wifi. Students who do not have the resources that supports digital machinery are already behind in trying to succeed. The familiarity is not going to be there when tasks need to be done through technology. I suppose I'll experience very extreme grades, like highs and lows, because of digital divide. I will have to work around the students who don't have technology readily available. In my pace of teaching the material, I think it will not be a steady climb because those hurdles need to be conquered in order to help my students succeed. I think when someone decides to be a teacher it is because there is a motivation to push students to be the best they can be academically. So, slowing down might give students that lack technology time to learn their way around it and improve their skills.

In terms of academic software, I have seen many teachers use technology within the classroom. Academic softwares not only make life easier for the teacher, but it allows the students to participate in the classroom. I have been observing Kindergarten the past three weeks and I have seen "Class Dojo" being used multiple times. It praises students behaviors by adding points that lead to a prize. The part of "Class Dojo" that is engaging for the students is that they get to choose their animated cartoon that goes by their names. In the future I would like to implement the academic software, "Karellen", because it provides communication with the school and parent/guardian with ease. For example, the app can be downloaded and stored in the apps of a mobile device. Important information can be described pertaining to each child to the educator. Messages can be sent to and from the teacher. Using this within my classroom will create awesome communication when it is needed. The second academic software I will choose is "Classroom Dojo". Like I mentioned before I love the interaction the students have with the teacher and it stores good behavior in points and promotes a fun environment in the classroom. The parents will also be able to log in and see how their children did that day at school. A cool feature of the software is that it personalizes the students voice with their choice of profile picture. I believe using both softwares will make the classroom safe, fun, and motivational for learning.