Blog Journal #5

Twitter/Instagram PLN

Hey Blog! I have been searching on Twitter or "X" for my PLN's and have entered a few small circles with like-minded people who hope to enrich education for students. I have found it beneficial as it's a mix of people who are educators and some that are considered educators. I believe staying in the loop of Twitter and continuously finding groups and outside opinions and information is a way to stay on page with other educators. This can help me as a future educator to know what I should be looking out for either the positives or the negatives. How can I improve continuously and what I should be realistically focusing on. 

Digital Divide

The digital divide or the concept of two groups where there's those who have access to computers and the internet compared to those who don't is a worry in our future. Technology has become more than an enhancement in our modern society to the point where it's become a dependent as far reach of a necessity. In school, this has become a tool of both destruction and miracles, where students may use technology to their advantage of cheating to the point where they camouflage in their surroundings of those who understand concepts while those who might cheat don't. Without technology we plainly see who can thrive on a subject who can't without the resources we have access to. Knowing this, I argue that regardless students who cheat are still learning either at a slower rate enough to retain some of the information but still learn to work around as they place efforts to find ways to beat the system. Digital divide also may go as far as affecting strategies, as a majority of teachers use copy and paste worksheets without countless amount of answer sheets posted on sites like Quizlets, Weebly, Chegg and Course Hero. But I as an educator intend to create my worksheets to challenge those students to do the work instead of cheat. Likewise, digital divide can also hinder the learning curve of students as some depend on electronics do their homework assignments and if educators don't meet the expectations the learning curve may go down based on the performance that is capped.

Academic Software for Students

In my classroom I would like to implement ReadingPlus and MathNation for my students. ReadingPlus focuses on students on language and literature where it provides articles that students read and answer a variety of questions in return for a grade. The articles are preference based on skill level from a pre-exemptive test that students take beforehand and based on interests from a questionnaire when setting up a new account. MathNation is also another software that focuses on subjects of Mathematics where students are assigned homework and they're expected to answer questions after receiving either a quick recap of the lecture and example problems. I would like to use them as I used these during my time in K-8, where I would learn from the educators and for homework I was tasked to do these assignments. These helped give me practice and feedback where I would be able to talk to math educators if I needed more explaining or help in return as an extra support apart from just my teachers. This could help my students learn from certified educators/tutors and also receive the necessary practice that correlates to my current lectures I would be teaching my students.