Blog Journal #5

Twitter 

I am very new to using Twitter.  My cat has his own Twitter page therefore, I am hiding behind his page. I have had a lot of fun posting on my cat Beau's behalf. It is really funny how much people love their pets and the time that they commit to their Twitter pages.  

I hadn't really thought about using it for my own personal use. However, I have navigated around Twitter pages and am following several celebrities and teachers. I am becoming more comfortable with Twitter. I had previously thought it wasn't for my age group. I was wrong. There are a lot of ways people can use this platform. You can share recipes, travel postings, FSU sports mania and so much more.  I am going to use it for more than one purpose and will be setting up a few more accounts. 

Digital Divide 

It is crucial that all of our students in and outside of the classroom have access to technology in today's world. If the students of today do not have the resources they need to compete in our ever-changing technological world, they will be left behind and will struggle as adults. They will not be able to compete for jobs if they do not have the technological background to navigate and keep up with their tech savvy counterparts.  Students have no control over the financial resources, or lack thereof, that their families have. It is not logical to ask a 15 year to get a job in order to help the family with meeting their financial obligations. Young people have one job, to get the best education that they can. Our schools, districts and the states need to allocate the resources so that every child begins on the same footing as the other. 

Software 

Twitter.com is a free social networking site where it's users broadcast short posts known as "tweets". I like the fact that there are more ways to utilize Twitter than just for fun and games. I believe that teachers can use this to teach their students about digital citizenship, freedom of expression and the art of respect. Each student could have their own Twitter account and the teacher could grade the activities that the student engages in. This is a way that I could monitor their "fun account" and still give them a grade on their engagement activities. 

I am also looking at Flip.com as an additional tool to utilize with my students. This tool is a social learning app that uses short-form videos to make learning a little more fun. It allows students to share their opinions and be creative while connecting with their classmates. For my high school students, we can use daily video journals, daily learning reflections, peer reviews, persuasive debating, project presentations as a primary use. This would be my "teacher page" and would be used solely for our classroom course work.