Assignment 1- Technology Literacy

ARTICLE LINK
I read a short article called "Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories, and Blogs" by Rebecca Mullen and Linda Wedwick. This article talked about a middle school language arts teacher who uses all three of those technology tools in her classroom.  She is from a rural area with very few students.  The schools technology is pretty much a computer lab with internet and basic Microsoft software.  The article tells about these three tools that she includes in the classroom in order to help her students gain wisdom on technology while also learning great skills in language arts.  I learned about the digital stories, which sounds very familiar to a podcast type of thing, except it can have pictures along with it as well.  What I appreciated about this article is that it was about a school that did not have all the new technology, but it used the few resources it had in order to help the students grow in their academics while still learning how to use high tech resources using mostly internet servers.  The digital stories are definitely something I will look into doing for my future classes because it sounds like a fun activity that inspires students to write well, and it also allows them to perform their writing by recording their own voices and putting pictures with their stories.

The teacher NET that I want to focus on this semester is 1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.  I feel that in order to fully allow a student to learn and grow with/through technology is by allowing them to be creative and try projects that they may not come up with on their own.  Technology can be used in different ways, having students create projects with friends can help them grow in the subject area as well as socially and technologically.  When students are challenged to create something that they know they will share in class, they will put more effort into it knowing that their peers will see the finished product.  This semester I hope to learn more sources I can refer to for my students to use on their projects, learn about projects teachers have done in the past that have worked well in the classroom, and also the best way to incorporate learning through the technology projects given.  Students learn best when they have a passion for what they do, and if technology is part of their passion, then allowing them to learn through technology would be a great gift to the students.  The student NET that I would also like to focus on is 3. Research and Information Fluency. I find that this NET is very important because research is still something I have a difficulty doing sometimes.  Finding reliable sources on the web can be difficult, so I want to help my students learn at a younger age what resources are reliable and how to cite them correctly.  Some ways I could do this is simply by having them do a research project and I would be there to help them find good sources and teach them how to cite things and do effective research.  Another way I could help students succeed at this NET is by simply showing them resources that are free that can be used by anyone yet are reliable and safe for student's to use.