Blog 4

This semester was the first time I ever used Twitter. At first, it was confusing- I did not really understand how it worked (I'm used to Instagram). I still have not downloaded the app on my phone, so I am still just using it on my laptop. This might be causing a problem because I forget about it because 1) It is something I've never used before and 2) I do not have it with me always like my other social media apps. Slowly, though I am figuring it out. I have been following education accounts and other education adjacent people.  I am not completely sold on the idea that it is super beneficial as an educator. I can see why some people would like it to get simplified news about things they are interested in. For me, I am too new to Twitter that I do not rely on it for news like I do other sources. In the future, I don't see myself using Twitter past this semester, so I can't answer the question about how it would be helpful to me as an educator in my classroom. 

Earlier this semester, we read about the digital divide in classrooms. Reading about it reminded me how differently-abled my peers and I were in school. I always went to incredibly diverse schools were from students wealthy, middle class, and poor backgrounds. Because of this, I knew many students with access to the newest technologies, students with super hand-me-down computers, and students who had nothing. I, luckily went to school that did not put an overwhelming emphasis on the need for everything to be technology-based, and when there were things that required computers, my school willingly lent them out to students. Other schools and students are not as fortunate as I was growing up, and funding makes it difficult for them to provide equal access to technology for their students. I might end up in a school like this where all the students don't have great access to technology. I already plan on making my classes on the more interactive side because I plan on teaching a foreign language and I believe the best way for people to learn a language is to practice conversation with other people because it gives them more experience using the language- not staring at papers or screens that have them read sentences and fix grammar problems. So, if I encounter students with limited technology access, they will not have problems keeping up to date on information in my classroom because they will have all the information they need physically provided in class. 

I did not know what "academic software" really was until this class. Now that I know what it is, I can look back in my education career and see that I've been using some type of academic software since grade school. As a teacher, it is important to have some type of way to get classroom information to students. For this, I would use software like Canvas, which connects students and teachers and allows teachers to post homework, readings, and so much more on one site for all their students to access.  I would use this to reiterate what was taught/gone over in class and for studying materials. I would also encourage that my students use google drive. This has been one of my favorite tools online because it allows me to organize documents, notes and, powerpoint presentations. I would have my students use this for writing papers and keeping track of all of their information.