Blog 8

PowerPoints are examples of creative visual content. Students have to create their own design and figure out how it will be presented. They also serve to evaluate and analyze an idea, as a student has to thoroughly research a topic and come to a conclusion about it before they can present it well. With this research comes the application of new content and understanding to put it into another context for their audience. Finally, students must memorize key points in their presentation to contribute to the overall performance.

I think technological professional development is crucial for teachers to stay ahead of advancement. Teachers need resources to attend conferences where they can collaborate and learn together about technology. This will motivate them as professional and give them the tools they need to stay ahead of technology for their students. This website, http://www.techlearning.com, is an excellent resource for teachers to find out what new tools they can use and how to efficiently operate them.

Blog 7

• Adative technologies are extremely useful to learners with any form of disability. There are many apps that are used for blind chilren that read text out loud and help them understand readings despite their inability to read. Language learners, although language isn't a disability, can also use technology to help with language learning like Rosetta Stone. These apps help enforce grammar rules and aid in learning vocabulary in fun ways. I have used technologies that help with language learning when I was abroad and I know many ELLs that use apps to help learn English. I think adaptive technologies are difficult because some students might not have access to them at home. So they can only use this technology at school. For a language learner this is hard because only half of the day will be spent learning the language and then they won't be around it at home. 
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• I learned a lot about forming a website when working on the Web Page Design assignment. I liked how easy Weebly was to operate. I had to create a website a few semesters ago for another class and I used Wix instead which was much harder. I like how my website is formatted but I had a hard time thinking of a theme. I with the parts blended together better. I also didn't have great pictures because I am not actually teaching a class. If I was teaching a class I would put pictures up of assignments to make it more personable. I learned how to create a basic website and further in my career I can make it more specific to my class. 
• http://mssheltonclasspage.weebly.com 

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Diigo is really neat and I will definitely use it in my classroom. Through Diigo I learned how to collaborate and interact on a Web 2.0 software system. I learned how to bookmark pages, tag words related to pages, highlight text, and post public notes. This application can be used to critique articles with students and share interesting studies with colleagues. I think its good to interact with others while learning and sharing ideas online about the same piece of information.