Tech Exploration Blog Post:

For those of you not in my class what I am about to write is an assignment that at first glance appears to gauge where I stand in regards to using technology in the classroom. There are six questions and some of them have images that I cannot quite copy to this post. Even before starting this I see where I stand with technology so just bare with me if you could.

1. Consider the terms in the Wordle below and these questions: Are you a digital native, visitor, or resident? How do you live your tech life?

Unfortunately I do not know a majority of and potentially all of the words in the Wordle below. This may have to do with how I use technology in my life. After looking at what it means to be a digital native, visitor, or resident I definitely feel that I am a digital visitor. I tend to be very specific in using technology using it for very specific reasons and I do not tend to use technology to connect with others outside of social media that I barely post to anymore. I use technology to navigate through my classes, check my e-mail, pay my bills, complete papers and presentations for homework, research topics, keep up to date with topics of interests, and play video games. I do use technology everyday but outside of a few homework assignments my technology usage is geared towards entertainment. In the future I am sure I will venture off into being more adventurous as a teacher using technology to enhance instruction in my classroom for the new generation of digital natives but for now the words on the Wordle do not mean much for me as I do not recognize them outside of being useful websites possibly to aid teachers.

2. Tech Tools to Enhance Student Learning: Visit each site. Consider some of the tools that I have used with my students. (These are not all of them just a sample.) Think about how you might use each one to reach out to students, parents, or the community. Choose one and write about it.

After checking out these various websites I thought about how I would realistically be able to use these tools. VoiceThread stood out to me as a way in which I could take documents and add me to the side explaining the documents as I mark them. I felt that the checking understanding websites like the Socratic website were also appealing to me but VoiceTHread I feel would be most effective in reaching out to students, parents, and possibly the community. To be honest a website like VoiceThread is something that I have had little to no experience with so learning how to operate this technology would be challenging but I could see the benefits of using a site like this especially if I taught an online course. One way I would try to use this site is by posting on my teacher page that I notice many schools have as a way for other parents or members of the community to get a glimpse of an example of how I plan to teach concepts to their children. Or I could also see this website being helpful in explaining in a more engaging manner the syllabus or expectations of the class or the rubric/expectations of an assignment. Thinking really outside the box I could also see how this website could be helpful in creating a lesson for students to follow on a day that I am not in class for whatever a reason that would be simple enough for a substitute to follow. This would force me to be more creative and learn how to use media recording devices but I think I would be able to figure it out over time.

3. Authentic Tasks for Students: Here are a list of a few tools that you can use with students to write virtually. Why is this important? What are the benefits? The risks? Write about your favorite discoveries.

Virtual writing is essential because technology is the median that students of today use to do everything including writing. I would still argue for the importance of actually still writing with a paper and pencil but I can also make an argument that this is slowly becoming obsolete. Personally I hope that the art of writing on paper does not go away but at the same time I feel that what I value in writing is the ideas of what someone is writing irregardless of whether it is typed or written. I also feel that giving students opportunities to write virtually makes writing more enjoyable for them as it can be done in a number of ways as seen through the various websites. The risks of having students writing digitally are that they are on a computer and being on a computer comes with the normal risks associated with using technology such as going on dangerous sites. Also becoming too reliant on digital writing as a teacher could be a risk because not every school has the capabilities to have all students engage in digital writing at school and/or at home. Also virtual writing could frustrate students if they find the websites/apps too difficult to navigate as there often times are learning curves for each website and app.

Taking a look at the various web tools available some of my favorite discoveries were the meme creator, PowToon, and Storybird. It is surprising that with as many memes that I have seen I have never searched for a good meme creating website and through skimming through these websites I can say that I found one that even has templates available of the most popular memes. I have always thought that having my students make their own memes would be a very positive writing experience that will help them make writing fun and relate-able to their interests as memes are very popular. PowToon caught my attention not so much as an activity for my students though I am sure that could be possible; rather I thought using this website could allow me to create interesting cartoon like presentations using characters to help explain difficult topics. This could not only be very funny but memorable for my students. Storybird was by far my favorite because it serves a multitude of purposes in my eyes. The only downside to me was that StoryBird seems to be geared towards younger students although my middle school students could benefit from this program that gives students inspiration to write various lengths of writing and poetry by using art to spark their imagination.

4. What Lies Ahead? Check out what is going on in the teacher-tech world. Review Jane Hart’s Slideshare Top Tech Tools for Educators 2015 and see what teachers are using around the world. Write about what you notice about the tools that educators are using around the world. Here is the link: http://www.slideshare.net/janehart/top-100-tools-for-learning-2015-52992784

Interestingly enough I recognized a lot of the most used tech tools that educators used in 2015. At the same time it does not surprise me that many of the tools are recognizable to me because I am still a highly active student and use many of these or have seen teachers mention or use many of these tools. It is refreshing to see many tech tools like the Microsoft office tools, google maps, youtube, social media sites, and even the dreaded Wikipedia being used by other educators as I too plan to use all of these and more. My learning has been reinforced as I noticed many of the sites that I just covered in the previous questions such as Wordle, Kahoot, and others. Looking at many of the tech tools that I was not familiar with I noticed that they a majority of them just allow one to manipulate information, data, and common teaching practices to make them more modern. Not only more modern but many of these websites add a convince to the instruction process by taking out a lot of the busy work or by actually giving one the means to do something like manipulate and use media.

5. Review this digital tool version of Bloom’s Taxonomy below. Based on what you have done today and what you understand about Bloom’s Taxonomy, explain what teachers need to consider as they integrate technology?

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide for tech tool usage by teachers the first thing that teachers need to do is to become familar with the available digital tools. Yet knowing that the tools exist simply is not enough. Teachers need to then research the various tools and think about how they can apply to their interests, standards, and classroom. After teachers do their homework they need to actually use technology in the classroom and not be scared to do so because the only way to truly know if something works for one teacher in the classroom is to try it. Through experimentation teachers will begin to know what works well for them and their students and what does not work so well. I think I may have tweaked Bloom’s Taxonomy a little bit but ultimately what I get from this question is to make sure and do my part in researching the available options out their and then experiment and create lessons that use the various tech tools to enhance my lessons. Technology can be intimidating especially for those who grew up without it but it is something that teachers need to try as I feel the benefits of using technology outweigh the negatives. We are teaching a different kind of student now a days and thus need to adapt the tools we use to reach these students.

6. Based on your exploration what will you try next?

I can honestly say that my exploration of these various tech tools was enjoyable for me. In my graduate studies I have explored various tech tools a couple of times and each time I feel like I build my repertoire of tools and become just a bit more confident with using technology in the classroom. I still do not plan to teach for about another year or two so I do not think that much will change in how much I plan to use these tools over that time period but when I finally do get to that point I know that I will do my best to recall all the various groups of tools such as pre-writing, publishing, and inforgraphics and then research the groups in detail seeing what is realistic to use in my classroom. I use the word realistic because I did notice how many of the websites cost money to use and I will have to weigh the options of just how important using some of these tools are because money tends to always be tight for me. In addition to exploring further in the future I will be on the look out for new and creative tools along the way that catch my interest. Plus I have heard many teachers praise the many ideas that they get from using Pintrest so I may look into that to explore other tech tools that could be of use. Most importantly I plan to not be scared of using tech tools but I felt that way even before this blog posting. This did serve as a refresher and reminder as to the importance and practicality of using tech tools in the class.

Thank you for reading!

Fun Gets Better With Age?

My girlfriend has been extra romantic and my wallet is not as full as it once was, probably meaning that Valentine’s Day has come and passed. Don’t worry I am not going to talk about anything too sappy but rather that Valentine’s Day is what inspired this post. More specifically what my girlfriend and I did inspired this blog. We decided to use our Busch Gardens pass and start the day in Tampa then head over to Universal City Walk for dinner and a movie and yes it was an amazing day! What I wanted to talk about today relates to how growing older has changed how I enjoy theme parks. I thought this would be an interesting piece as I am sure that many others may be able to relate to what I am experiencing and if not well just sit back and enjoy a different perspective.

So let me ask you a question. When you think of Busch Gardens or a theme park as a kid what were you thinking? The common answer ninety percent of the time is roller coasters or rides. Well what got me thinking about this change in myself is the fact that we went to two theme parks on Valentine’s day, had a great time, and to my surprise did not go on one single ride. I am aware that this could be blasphemous to some and to my younger self this would be very bizarre behavior as well. Back in my younger theme park adventures it was necessary to get there an hour early, get a coffee or energy drink, and basically just do everything until the park closes. I made sure to research when the opened and closed to make sure I would get the most time to do everything. Clearly the older me has a different definition of how to have fun at a theme park.

The other day we just enjoyed each other’s company and the fact that we were having some free time. The simplicity was actually really nice as we choose to enjoy the animals at the park rather than the rides. Maybe this has to do with where I am in life because I know I want to get back to the old way I used to do theme parks or maybe it is something else. I considered the fact that I have rode hundreds of rides in my life and that maybe I just need something new. Maybe it was the fact that I had a girlfriend and it was a holiday so we did not feel like waiting in lines. It could have even been the fact that I have never been to Busch Gardens and I wanted to slow down and not complete the park in one day, especially since I have a year pass. Or of course it could be that I caught a hard case of boring adult. I am pretty sure that I will do everything in my power to resist that last one but this topic interests me because I do not have a definite answer and I know this situation reflects my growth as a person.

So I guess this blog I guess is more of a genuine inquiry. Feel free to let me know if you have any input on this topic and how, if at all age has effected the way in which you have fun?

Thank you for reading!

Post Super Bowl 50 Football Rant

I’ve been sitting around the last couple of days and have fought with myself about the direction I wanted my blog to go. For those who read my introduction you would recall that free time is precious to me as a graduate student and scarce. Regardless of the lack of time, I find humor in the fact that I still find time to watch football no matter what. This last weekend in particular was the game of all games, the Super Bowl and I figured I would start my blog posting with something that has grown to be a staple in American society. For those not interested in football don’t worry I do not plan to get too fancy with the details of the game, I’m going to take more of a general football fan stance and discuss current trends in the game from my point of view.

Before I begin discussing my take on Super Bowl 50 I just would like to address some personal feelings I have about football. First of all I love sports and especially the game of football itself. I believe for the most part it is a fun team sport that takes athletic skill and strategy to win. Yet as with anything that gets as much media attention and is as financially superior as the NFL the game itself starts taking a backseat to everything else surrounding the game. Basically I feel that fans like myself are getting frustrated with what football is becoming at the highest level.

To start My feelings are torn on the facts that the NFL gets so much media attention. On one side I understand that football is great entertainment and the sport embodies the American culture. Football to me is viewed under a microscope almost as much as if not more then real issues in America. Some may argue that this is a problem because we as a nation get distracted too easily by things like the NFL while others may feel that football media coverage is just a healthy escape from the turmoils of reality. Personally I feel that football is the modern day coliseum and the media coverage glorifies it, gives football its stories, and makes football more dramatic (aka like a Soap Oprah). Football is a reflection of the American society and all issues that are seen in society are seen in a less threatening game like football. Again I love the game but sometimes all this extra stuff kind of taints the game in my opinion. As with most things this addition of media coverage creates some good for the sport and at the same time takes away from the sport.

The other issue I have with the NFL is the massive amount of money attached to this business. Football at the highest level is not football at times, it is a money focused business and I do struggle accepting that fact at times. Money has made people do some crazy things in the past and I’m not about to claim that the NFL is evil or anything like that but I am sure that this claim could be argued. From a casual football fan point of view money has taken away from the game because the focus feels like it is always “how can we milk this as much as possible?” or “how can we make this more profitable?” Super Bowl 50 even has made people wonder if the sport is rigged on account of who won the game because it is too fairy tale and seems like the perfect story that would in my opinion be the most profitable because who doesn’t enjoy a fairy tale ending as seen in Super Bowl 50. If for whatever reason you do not know what I am talking about, basically the face of the NFL over the last decade or two probably played in his last game ending with the fairy tale perfect ending of him riding off into retirement a Super Bowl champion. This story line has happened numerous times in the NFL and it just makes people think if this is all really happening or is it as rigged as the WWE.

I mostly bring up these two issues as food for thought, just because they are real issues that I think about. When I decide to overlook the potential negativity surrounding this game I do sit back and enjoy the game with those I love. Last night I witnessed the under dog Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers. I had no personal investment in the game as my team was not playing in this so I did not care who won and I thought either story line would be good. The game itself was highlighted by strong defensive play which typically most fans find as being more boring then an air assault offensive game. I too found that the game was not as memorable as previous games as it was over early into the last quarter. I thought the half time show was not that great but that’s just my opinion. I like Coldplay, or at least a song of theirs, but for an event like the 50th Super Bowl I feel that someone big should have been performing but I guess that just reflects the lack of music stars we have today. I thought Adele would have been a better choice just because she is current, good for the children, has numerous songs that people like, and is a powerful singer. Having Adele could have been entertaining but competing with stars like Steive Wonder, Madonna, and Michael Jackson of the past make it hard to trump what has been done in the past.

These are just my opinions and I know how dangerous having an opinion could be on the internet but with that being said I’d like to know what you feel about this issue. Maybe you agree with some of what I am saying or not but either way I’d like to hear it. Thank you for taking the time to read my rant!

Introduction

Welcome all to my introductory blog! If you have made it this far then congratulations you have traversed the internet well today. My name is Brandon and I am new to the blogging community. Although I am new to blogging I am excited to share my thoughts, receive your feedback, and experience blogging. I am a graduate student and I have created this blog for one of my courses at UCF. With that being the case, expect some of my posts to be related to teaching because that is what I am striving to do. More specifically, I want to teach English at the secondary level (middle or high school).

Outside of school I consider myself to be as active as one can be when pursuing a graduate degree. I am a huge sports fan and I love engaging in my favorite sports whenever possible. For those that may be curious I am a fan of the New York Giants (NFL), Boston Celtics (NBA), LSU Tigers (college football), UCONN Huskies (college basketball), and Boston Red Sox (baseball). I typically play basketball, lift weights (poorly), and run when I feel like being active. Eating healthy and cooking are slowly becoming more important to me and I have become more interested in these topics. My girlfriend goes to school with me and she is my go to girl; we do everything together. I love my close friends and family and make sure to make time for them when I can. I would consider myself a strong Christian and my motivation for giving life my all every day comes from my desire to be the best me I can be so that I can help others become the best version of themselves too.

Other topics that I am interested in include movies, video games, literature, traveling, psychology, history, and fitness. I have a lot to say about each of these topics and I consider myself very open minded so I am always open to experience new things. I also love people and consider myself an open book (even though on the internet I may be slightly more hesitant) so if you have any questions about anything feel free to ask. Blogging is new to me but I am eager to hear what you guys have to say.

Thanks for reading my introduction!