Internet For Under-Prepared Educators

In this tech task, I was appointed the task of researching academic literature. We were to find an academic article on any topic of our choice that was related to technology in the classroom. Using "Google Scholar" I looked up "Desmos in the classroom" and found the article I chose to do my task on. The article is titled "A Graphing Approach To Algebra Using Desmos" a paper written by Ryan Thomas.  A Brief Summary of The Article  The author talks about how hand-held graphing calculators are a powerful tool for facilitating student learning, but there are also qualities of the devices that create barriers. Many of the tasks where graphing calculators are the most useful in the pre-calculus and applied curriculum (e.g., finding real roots, identifying extrema, and solving systems of equations) also have relatively steep learning curves. The result is often that too much attention is devoted to the mechanics and processes of working with the calculato...

Hello readers, Today I am given the task of comparing and contrasting the difference between the "Typical Teacher Network" and "The Networked Teacher". Both models are shown below. The Teachers Network Models In this model, it is obvious that the "typical teacher" is most likely a teacher of the past or someone who is living in the past and without the use of integrating technology. Their network is very short and doesn't extend much past the basics of being  teacher - Having access to curriculum documents, colleagues, family/community, a computer and a television at home to watch the news. In this model, you can see they have all of the same networks that the "Typical Teacher" had but a much more broadened access to different media outlets with the use of technology. So now they have access to social media platforms which gives them access to things like social bookmarking, digital forums, chats, video conferencing, bl...

Hello readers (Mostly Mike), This tech task is onnnnnnnn (Drum roll pleaseeeeeeeeeeee), you guessed it! Visual Literacy! I am looking into the outbreak of its popularity and its increasing importance.  You don't need to be in a school classroom to see the outbreak in popularity of visual literacy. If you are sitting on your couch at home, sipping a refreshing beverage, and watching the Jets game you will likely see a form of visual literacy during commercial breaks. For the exact same reason why they are effective in the classroom is why these massive companies are using very similar visual techniques during commercials. You can see an example of it in the photo below with Ford commercials having visual cues for the audience to more effectively process the information and retain it for longer. What is an infographic, and why are they effective? An infographic is a type of visual literacy technique that uses a collection of images, charts, and with minimal text that...

Good day readers, In this class we were forced to create an educational Twitter account. Personally, Twitter was already the only prevalent social media account that I used on a consistent basis. I didn't like how much time I was wasting scrolling through Facebook so I got rid of it. I have never even started an Instagram account because I knew it would be just as bad. I am happy that I don't have Facebook or Instagram because I just found it distracting from being present in the real world. For whatever reason, I have always enjoyed Twitter and found it less time consuming. Will I continue the use of Twitter as an educator from a professional perspective? For this class we used Twitter from a professional perspective. We followed significant people in the teaching world that have our own teachable subject areas and share professional information over the medium of Twitter. I have really enjoyed having a twitter account and following the community of other educator...

Hello classmates and Mike, In this tech task we were appointed the deed of following a blog and to talk a little bit about it. I chose to follow Dan Meyer and his blog called "dy/dan". I simply googled "Math and Science teacher blogs" and he was a top recommendation from many sites. About Dan Dan  taught high school math to students who didn’t like high school math. He is a big advocate for better math instruction, and has had the opportunity to talk about it on large stages. He has been on television on CNN , "Good Morning America" , " Everyday With Rachel Ray" , and hosted a chat with TED.com . He earned a doctorate  from Stanford University in math education and is currently the Chief Academic Officer at Desmos .  Now working with Desmos, he explores the future of math, technology, and learning. He has worked with teachers internationally and was named one of "Tech & Learning's 30 Leaders of the Future". I highly...

This week we had our blinders taken off and we were introduced to the topic of energy consumption with technology. I had never thought of something even remotely close to this conversation before. Now it has left me with so many questions, and thinking about the future. For starters, who has thought about the energy consumption associated with a simple task of googling something? It is something so simple and reoccurring in everyday of our lives.  We never stop to think about the actual process of it. There are 3 functions that happen behind the curtain whenever someone presses the "Enter" tab on their smartphone, laptop, tablet, and or desktop. The complexity of the process will surprise you. Step 1. Web Crawling: Essentially, crawling is copying what is on web pages and repeatedly checking the multitude of pages to see if they are changed - and make a copy of any changes found. The programs which have the job of doing this are variously referred to as robots, crawle...