Module 1: Introduction to Educational Technology

Exploring Teacher Blogs Reflection


I decided to read and analyze the blog "10 Most Popular ISTE Blogs of 2022" created by Jerry Fingal. Jerry Fingal is an ISTE blogger who writers about the transformative power of educational technology. This platform is intended to help teachers that are craving innovative, flexible and thoughtful ways to use tech for learning, as they delve deeper into topics such as digital citizenship, creativity and professional learning. At first glance, the blog has a very clean and organized appearance that gives the viewers easy access to find the published articles. The first article that stood out to me was “6 Ways to Use Students' Smartphones for Learning”. This stood out to me because as long as smartphones have been around, they have held a negative weight when it comes to students due it being very distracting. However, this article suggests 6 different ways that they can be used to the teachers advantage. The second article that spiked my interest was “Turn Your Classroom Into a Personalized Learning Environment”. I found interest in this one due to personal experience of enjoying learning in fun and interactive classrooms. Lastly, the article “Top 10 Sites to Help Students Check Their Facts” really caught my attention due to being a college student that is consistently turning in assignments that require full correct information. Although this blog looks very useful to teachers, I would say a critique I have is that it only provides so much information. Even though being extremely organized is useful, it appears that it is that way because there are not a good number of articles to be presented.

https://iste.org/blog/10-most-popular-iste-blogs-of-2022

Curation Tool Reflection

Follow link to access the Wakelet collection

https://wakelet.com/wake/kqhQDc_GLJpZTWMmPn17U 

Reflection:

Did you like using the tool? Why or why not?

Yes, I very much enjoyed using this tool. It gives individuals the ability to easily corrugate a web page in a way that organizes websites and notes that is easy on the eye and to understand. I can definitely see how this can help teachers trying to display different yet similar resources to students.

Was it easy to use? Do you think students would find it easy to use?

No only was it easy to create my own collection, but it was easy to view my other classmates. Just by clicking their link it automatically brings you to their collection where everything is visible and easy to find.

How could you imagine using this tool in your classroom or professional practice?

If I was a teacher, I could defiantly see myself taking advantage of this tool in order provide similar resources to students. Having them all grouped together in one place yet still organized can be very beneficial to students. I also imagine using this in my current daily use to organize certain websites I use for school everyday as a college student. Having one place where all the websites are together and easy to locate.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the free vs. paid versions of the tool?

The advantages of the free version is that it is accessible to everyone and nobody is limited to use it due to not having to pay for it. However, there are certain tools on the paid version that enhance the collection ti the extreme that are very beneficial. However, the only negative to that is having to pay for using it.