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Technology at the Olympics

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    Last Friday, the world witnessed the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. I always love the opening ceremonies for many reasons. We get to see the various athletes coming in that will represent our great country. However, I love all the music, dances, skits, and fashion as it highlights some of the most important times in that specific city's history.  However, I did not realize until I took this class, just how much technology is used to stream not only the opening ceremonies but the Olympics in general. The Olympics is streamed 24/7 on the television for the next few weeks. However, people can catch some of the action on social media sites such as Facebook or TikTok. There are even apps that Android and Apple have come out with that is dedicated just to the Olympics. I do not think there was this much technology for the Olympics around 25 years ago.  I also think about how the athletes are using social media and technology while they are competing over in Paris
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Week 10 Tool~ Sutori

  As a teacher, you are sometimes introduced to a variety of lesson plan tools. Obviously, some are better than others. However, it just depends on the teacher and their style. Some like to handwrite plans while others like digital. When I was in the classroom, I preferred digital because I could move my lessons around if needed without a bunch of eraser marks in my book (Yes, I'm OCD).  This week, I learned about Sutori. On Canvas, it describes Sutori as a tool teachers can use to create lessons. I automatically thought it was another lesson plan site, but it was so much more than that. If you want to teach a lesson a specific way, Sutori has a way to do it. When looking at the free trial, they had timelines on Civil Rights Movement, comparisons between World War 1 and 2, virtual tour of the Florida Capitol and so much more. I spent most of my time looking at the history resources because I am a history buff; however, they do have resources for STEM, ELA, math, even ESL.  What I l
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Digital Engagement in Politics

Today, I read an article called "Can media literacy education increase digital engagement in politics?" (Kahne & Bowyer, 2019).  I feel that this is a timely article as we are gearing up for another presidential election this year. Kahne & Boyer stated that a survey done by Common Sense Media (Robb, 2017) "found that social media are now the most common source of news for young people ages 13-18" (par. 1). This is much different from years past when earlier generations would get their news from the radio, television, or even newspapers. However, young people will use their social media apps such as Facebook or even TikTok to receive breaking news and spread it to their friends. I would be surprised if they do not receive the breaking news on their social media apps faster than their parents do via the traditional route. As a result of young adults getting their news via social media, people have to be clever on how to and where to campaign in regard to polit
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When Technology Fails

  As some of you know probably heard or read, yesterday many parts of the United States that involved technology crashed. If you have not heard, you can read about it here:  Timeline: How the CrowdStrike outage unfolded | CNN Business . Due to the crash, many airlines cancelled flights, 911 lines were down, public transportation had been affected, even surgeries were cancelled. So, what caused this big technology failure. A simple software update. That's right, you read that right. A software update caused a global outage that is still affecting people at this moment. It is crazy to think about a time when technology can fail because we may not see it, however it can create disruption and chaos when it happens. So, when technology fails, what are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to get mad and frustrated? Of course, we can get frustrated at the situation; however, we must remember that we are not the only ones in the same situation. Yesterday, there were thousands of people frust
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Knowledge Sharing Assignment Reflection

Tonight, I decided to take a look at all the knowledge sharing projects that were submitted. I have to say that I am proud of our class and what everyone created. When creating my project, I learned so much regarding intellectual property rights and how to analyze the data from my resources. However, looking at the other projects, I was interested to see how they collected their resources and shared them. I learned how to share resources via LinkedIn and Padlet, two apps that I would never think of sharing materials on before.  These projects showed me that there are numerous ways to collect and share resources. I just have to be willing to learn about the different apps that can share resources. By learning, it will allow us to teach our students how to share their own projects or resources. Next week, I am going to look at the next project and see what I can create next!  
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Week 9 Tools

This week's tools were one of both review and exploration. Fortunately, I have heard of WhatsApp and GroupMe before this class. I currently use GroupMe to interact and communicate with my school counseling cohort. I just learned about Slack this semester through my Transition education class as another means of communication. All three tools are great ways for students to communicate and collaborate with each other if they need help with homework or work on group projects. I have even seen teachers use GroupMe to communicate with parents regarding important things happening in the classroom such as field trips, important testing coming up, etc. Nowadays, most everyone has access to a phone. These apps may be the best way to communicate with parents instead of teachers sending out newsletters like they used to in the 90s.  The one tool this week that I never heard of before was Miro. However, once I started exploring, I was hooked. Our class has a timeline template currently running
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Digital Detox Reflection

Last week, we were given a challenge to do a digital detox. To try and stay away from our Internet and digital devices for 48 hours. Did I try to do this detox? Of course, I did. Was I successful? Of course not. Between doing homework for my other classes as well as other things, it was hard to walk away for 48 hours. Let's be honest, I think the most I could walk away from was eight hours, but I was asleep during this time. So why is it so hard to do a digital detox? I think it is hard to do a detox because everyone needs the Internet in some way. Whether it is doing homework because you are doing online classes or catching up on the news because newspaper subscriptions are too expensive these days. It is just easier and more efficient when technology and Internet is at our fingertips.  Even though I couldn't do a total digital detox, I did learn some valuable things. I did learn that I am on my phone or other digital devices way too much during the day. When I am done with my
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