Module 3

In this module, we learned about Universal Design for Learning, Digital Citizenship Resources, and how to critique a lesson using UDL. UDL consists of 3 different brain networks; recognition networks, affective networks, and strategic networks. It was really interesting to learn about this because I am wanting to become an educator. Learning about this and UDL helped me to critique a lesson that was provided to me from the website CAST. When critiquing the lesson I chose, I had to focus on the features of the lesson and the barriers of the lesson. If the lesson had any barriers, I had to ask myself, "What could I change to make this barrier a 'feature'?". I enjoyed this assignment and I enjoyed the CAST website as well. I plan on continuing to use this website and this method of critiquing lesson for in the future. Hopefully, this will help for my future lessons as an educator to turn out much greater than as expected. The other thing that was taught in this module was Digital Citizenship Resources. This showed me a lot of different terms that I was not familiar with before. There was also a Prezi presentation representing information on the topic of Digital Citizenship Resources. I had not known about Prezi presentations before this, and it opened my eyes to a whole new world of creating presentations. All of these tools can easily be used in a future classroom, even the Prezi tool, and the CAST website. I found that the Prezi tool may be difficult to use because it does require a fee to be able to use it effectively. I also had to look up a lot of extra resources to be able to fully understand UDL. I found some really cool downloadables and saved them for future use. I really enjoyed these tools and I look forward to continuing to use them in the future. 

Module 2

In Module Two of ETEC 4810 we learned about three different technology tools and we learned about how to use them. The first technology tool we learned about is Twitter. Twitter is a social media tool that allows people to share thoughts and opinions. Next, we learned about Diigo, which is a social bookmarking tool. Lastly, we learned about Pixton. Pixton is a technology tool that allows you to make comic strips. In the future, I am planning on being an Elementary teacher. I want to focus on early childhood education, specifically between kindergarten through third grade. I could easily use all three of these technology tools in an elementary classroom. Twitter can be used in the classroom as a diverse way to connect, share, and learn. Diigo can help me, as a teacher, to easily bookmark specific websites that are important, or that I need to quickly find. Pixton can be a fun way to visually show information in the form of a comic strip. With the positives of using these technology tools, there may be some negatives as well. With Twitter, the children in an elementary education classroom may not be familiar with social media. The technological devices may also not be available. Also, parents may not be consent with the idea of their child using twitter. With Diigo, if your lessons are not focused around technology, then there may not be much use for this tool. With the Pixton tool, it may take a while to create Pixton comics, which isn’t good because you have to be on top of your toes with early childhood education. Also, depending on the age of the children they may not be familiar with how to read a comic strip in order to understand it. There are always two ways to look at things, but I like to try and stay positive. With how the world is changing, by the time I become a teacher, the children will probably be used to using technology. Technology is a popular way of learning things now. I believe that all three of these technology tools can be of great use in an elementary classroom.