Online Security

Looking at this image it shows a lot of very important aspects of online security, and how you can stay safe online. There are logins and passwords that protect important accounts, and there are safety checks when you forget what those are (which can happen a lot, for someone as forgetful as me). I also see the importance of where you put your information, like your credit card number and social security number, as these can help someone steal your identity or all of your money. It is incredibly important to know how to stay safe online, and probably something that should be taught in schools!

Copyright Resources

Here are some helpful links if anyone is looking to learn more about copyright and fair use laws! These are all useful when trying to understand what you can and cannot do as an educator, in order to make your classroom and teaching better for your students.


Teaching Students Digital Civility Goes Hand-in-Hand with Tech Rollouts

Copyright for Educators

Copyright Education Resources

The Educators' Lean and Mean No FAT Guide to Fair Use

The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use

Don't Just Copy, Right?

Quiz

Taking the quiz linked above showed me how much I really don't know about copyright laws (even though I think the quiz is a little old because it talked about using cassette tapes). I think not too many people know about copyright laws, and it seems as though doing something, even if you didn't know it was illegal, can get you in a lot of trouble.

Quiz 2
Answers

The second quiz I took I did much better on, 9/10 questions correct. This shows that I actually learned something between taking the two quizzes. For me, I think the most important thing I learned was that educators are allowed to use portions of copyrighted material without permission, which is something I did not think would be allowed! However, I am glad that it is, because I think it's important for educators to be able to have access to as many resources as possible, especially when trying to give students the best education they can get. 

Google Suite

Introducing G Suite for Education

In high school growing up the start of the Google revolution was beginning. We constantly used docs, slides, and Google Classroom for all of our work and projects, because it was this newer technology that made sharing and collaborating so much easier. But now, Google has gone even further by incorporating smarter technology into their systems and making everything even easier for students with this new G suite designed specifically for education. I love this idea, especially because it saves the students time. This means that students will be able to learn more and get their work done faster, leaving more time for them to do things that they want to do, which is super important, especially in high school. Plus the new setup is super cool! I love being able to go through new technology and see all of the crazy new things that we have never been able to do before. Google just keeps bringing us closer and closer to the future.

Drill and Kill

I think most people understand the concept of drill and practice learning and know why it has its clever nickname "drill and kill," however, I think there is more use to this technique than people think, especially with the advancing technology of the modern world. I definitely believe that this technique can be overused in classrooms a lot, however, one place I think it is incredibly useful is when learning new vocab that comes with a topic. In order for students to be able to learn the content of a new topic they need to be fluent in a new voabulary, and drill and practice can help speed this along. But, the teacher needs to find new ways to make it fun for the students!!

Integrating Emerging Technology

There are so many amazing new technologies coming out every single day, that's just the state of the new innovational world we live in. The question is, how do we use all of it to our advantage? And with so many new technologies coming out, how do we weed out what the best ones to use are?

One of, I believe, the coolest new technology is VR, or virtual reality. This tech allows you to essentially 'walk' into a video. You view a screen that takes up your entire vision, and moves the video as you move, essentially allowing you to feel like you are in the same place as what you are watching. This could be an incredibly useful technology, especially in a biology class. Bio is full of so many different experiences that aren't necessarily practical for the classroom setting. through VR students will be able to walk through different ecosystems and see the relationships of all of the different creatures that live there, they'll be able to shrink down into the body and see all of the systems and how they work and make all of the different things that make us who we are. VR could be used to help stir the imaginations of the kids and get them passionate about my subject.

This new technology redesigns the way we include the four C's of education into our classrooms: collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication. With all of these new ways of communicating from long distances through things like texting, email, and many other apps as well, students can not only better collaborate with each other and ask the teacher for help from home, but also reach out to other students across the world. Technology also allows for an immense increase in the availability of creative projects in the classroom. So many apps and websites have been created to help students design, animate, color, record, caption, anything you can think of. Student creativity has even started becoming part of the rubrics for projects, and I love this! I think that people lose their creativity as they get older, and it makes them more boring. Creativity is fun and exciting, and it also leads to better problem-solving skills! Technology has lead to better classrooms, and integrating with integrating it the benefits will far outweigh the disadvantages.

Edmodo

Edmodo

Linked above is a website (and app) that can be used in an educational setting called Edmodo. I used this app in high school and it was not only a great deal of fun to use, but also super helpful as a student, and now as a teacher. It allows students and teachers to communicate in a group setting outside of the classroom and allows teachers to share materials and assignments easily with students in a place they have constant access to. This can be so important because students won't be at risk to lose important papers, or forget when assignments are due because they have access to them all the time. Students can also get quick answers to questions that they have on their work or the topics they are learning. Teachers also have the ability to collect, grade, and return students' work through the app making it not only easier and faster but also paperless, so better for the environment. Overall this app is nothing but useful for both teachers and students!