Thank You for Calling the Ed Tech Help Line

Hello! So it has been roughly 8 weeks since I started this blog (concurrent with my enrollment in a Dominican University class: EDU 776 Integrating Technology into Programming, Services, & Instruction) and it has been a whirlwind.  Considering how rough this school year has been personally for me (and publicly with our Teacher's Union on the verge of going on strike) this class, despite the extra workload has been very informative and eye opening on many levels. As my previous blog posts has demonstrated, I've been opened up to many new and exciting things and I excited to have a new mindset and a bunch of cool new tools to implement as a teacher. One of the biggest takeaways for me has been the idea of opening up my online presence professionally as an educator.  I still hold fast and want to be as private as possible when it comes to my personal life, but I've come to realize that I can easily create a professional presence that is separate from my personal life (f...

Can social media coexist in a classroom for kids?  Honestly, my first gut reaction was NO!  As I tried to think through this question I just kept picturing kids getting distracted and being off task.  I think it's easy to over generalize this and it may be different for different age groups but after getting other people's perspectives on this, my feelings are starting to turn.  First off, I had the opportunity to go over a brief overview created by Nicole Zumpano on a book written by danah boyd called "It's Complicated: the social lives of networked teens." Although I haven't had a chance to read the book, the notes offered quite an interesting perspective of teens that I was semi aware of, but written in a much more concise perspective with research to back it up.  The biggest takeaway in a nutshell for me is that their networked space (being online + on their phones/devices) is similar to different networked spaces of other generations, whether it be at ...

I have a love/hate relationship with the screen time feature on my smart phone.  It tells me how many hours and minutes I've been on my phone this week, it compares how I am doing this week from last week, and it gives me a breakdown of where most of that time is spent.  During my hours of time spent in the online world, which is now even easier than before due to smart phones, I am I leaving behind a trail of all my activities, all my posts, likes, comments, and potentially even personal information for all to see.  But what exactly can others see about me? Data Mine I conducted a data mine of myself to figure out how easy or difficult it was to find me (and where) as well as what type of information there is about me online.   First off, my name turns out to be a very common name.  Searches for my name,  name + middle initial on Google surrounded by quotation marks did not produce any searches attached to my name at least within the first 5...

Nowadays, it seems like every other week there is a new app or online tool that people rave about, whether it's a new filter in Snapchat, or an app that can take your photo and predict what you'll look like in 50 years.  Having recently joined the Twitter universe and gaining a new professional learning network ( see my recent post ), I feel like I'm in the "in" crowd again hearing from other teachers about new apps and new tools that are being used with great success in their schools.  It's great! Photo from Daylio One app that I recently found after doing a search on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) amongst other teacher Twitter accounts, is an app called Daylio.  However, before I get into the details of the app, I'd love to give a little background as to why I wanted to showcase an SEL app.  Our school has historically been a Title 1-A school, where the majority of our students receive a free or reduced lunch and we have several students coming...

Source: Pixabay What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?  PLNs are networks, whether online or in person, that allows you to connect with others in your field to learn, discuss, and gain more knowledge to become better in your field.  Thanks to the Internet, PLNs have gone online and allows you to connect with others all around the world. I recently created my own PLN via Twitter ( @dyleeGoBlue ) and it has so far been an amazing and eye opening experience.  I've heard from others how beneficial PLNs have been for them, but I was skeptical and never felt the need to join in and on top of that, I was never really a fan of Twitter.  From a personal standpoint, I didn't feel the need to read short blurbs from my friends or celebrities about what's going on in their lives.  However, with a more professional focus, Twitter has been an amazing tool to connect with other teachers and other professionals around the world who have similar passions, interests, an...

How do we know if the technology we have in our rooms is making a difference?  Thankfully, more and more research is coming out on the effectiveness of technology on students.  I had the opportunity to peruse through several sites to learn more about the ed-tech trends that are occurring in and out of the classrooms today.  It has helped me get a better sense of my students and how I can change or modify my curriculum to help better prepare them for what lays ahead. One site that caught my interest was  Project Tomorrow Speak Up .  Their website had a report focused on  coding in classrooms .  One of their main takeaways was that a majority of kids identified creativity as an important skill to be prepared for the future and that coding was a way to help students develop creative skills. I knew my students always loved it when we had the opportunity to code, but I could never pinpoint why.  I just assumed they usually liked it because most of th...