I did a reading by Lisa Nielsen,"Help students manage their digital footprint and effectively participate in social media". 

As a future educator I strongly support the use of social media in the classroom. I feel that it can motivate students and it can enable students to communicate with one another inside and outside of the classroom. Sure, there can be many legal thing you need to consider but if it is possible. I say DO IT. Or, at least try and see how it goes? 

Ms. Nielsen discussed the implications of leaving a digital imprint. She write:

"I was recently at a conference where educators were discussing whether or not teenagers should use their real names online. One of the women in attendance felt strongly that in their teenage years students should begin using their real names. She posed the question, "If we don't take ownership of our digital identity who will?" This is a powerful question and brings to light the concept of active and passive digital footprints." 

I don't know how I feel about using the active vs. passive digital imprint but regardless I support allowing students to use social media and thereby, "leave a digital footprint". I guess I have to ponder the pro's and con's of each if I incorporate that into my classroom.

She is a strong supporter of using Twitter because it enables students to connect with one another based on similar interests. 

She stressed having conversations about not only taking control of digital footprints students have, but the messages they are sending across. I agree with this. I believe every students should have some foreground knowledge about social media and how it can affect them. 

With twitter I find that many districts find it acceptable to use and I would certainly use it in my classroom to get quick and instant feedback, questions, and thoughts. It's fun and engaging and relevant to the technological century we have already embarked upon. 

I really enjoyed this article and I felt that it motivated me to consider using twitter in my classroom. 

MACUL experience!

First off MACUL was AMAZING! But, I have to say I felt overwhelmed by how much there was to see. I wanted to go so to many seminars but there just wasn't enough time. I was overwhelmed in this way: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI

Anyways....

I loved how much there was to see!!! When I walked through the exhibit I was shocked by how many start ups there were.  I attended three conferences two of which I feel I need to talk about in more detail:

In the morning I attended 140E "Getting Started with Google Classroom" by Jessica P'simer, technology specialist honey creek community school. 

She spoke about they way in which you can operate Google classroom. I wanted to attend this because I have never actually used this platform before but I did not have a laptop to follow her instruction so I felt a little out of the loop for the hour. The screen was too far back to see what she was doing, unfortunately. But during the Q and A many talked about the benefits of Google class and the negatives of it. I felt that I have a better understanding of the ways in which this tool can be used in the future and I will explore how to use this in my future classroom because it seems like a great way to organize a teachers life and a students. 

I also attended 140B "Become a High Efficiency Educator Today" by Mitch Fowler

His lecture was great because he talked about many of the technologies we have discussed in class but one thing I did not know about was something called Plicker more information below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMAX2EQnUXE

Basically... it is a way to use your phone and paper as a substitute for an iClicker student arrange a preformed shape in a certain way to represent a,b,c,d options and the teacher can use an iPad or a phone to scan the configuration students hold up. Once scanned data is collected and saved on a spread sheet. I think that was really cool because the shapes are easy to print out and you can laminate them and use them all the time. Mitch did say that it is better to matte the lamination in case of interference. I think this a genius innovation because it doesn't require any technology but a personal teacher phone. 

The Digestive System using Prezi and Socrative-Something to Chew on

For my technology teach in assignment I would like to incorporate Prezi and Socrative. I currently just finished a unit on cells in my 7th grade life science class and we are moving into body systems. I plan to create a Prezi based on the digestive system. As I introduce each part of the system the Prezi will jump around and chronologically follow the order that food would be digested. Each organ will be described and discussed as a class. I feel that Prezi will be a great tool to use because it will enable students to see how food is digested in a visually appealing manner. Other platforms such as powerpoint will show students each part of the digestive system in a segmented way. By using Prezi I can show students a complete connected visual of the digestive process. I want to use Prezi because I feel students will have a better visual and understanding of the digestive process. I will have students take guided notes as I go through the presentation so that they have material to review on hand in the future. I will also share this Prezi with students via email if they would like to review. 

After completing the presentation I will have students log into Socrative and they will participate in a space race that I create. The space race game will not only stimulate healthy competition and provide engagement, but it will also be used as an exit ticket to test  students on knowledge they retained from the Prezi lecture and discussion we have in class. If anyone has any suggestions on  the ways in which I can improve the use of these tools in my class please let me know because I value all of your advice!!