Digital Blog Post #C

This week in “Technology for Educators” we were asked to review Chapters 5 and 7 in our textbook and share three concepts that we could elaborate on. 

Electronic note taking seems to be the future of the ole’ pen and paper, our text seems to think. Several applications and software programs have electronic note taking built in, or it is just as simple to add a note taking option to any device these days. Some of the most popular note taking applications are EverNote, One Note and Google’s note taking app, GoogleKeep. They are all variations of the same concept: jot your notes down on whichever device you have handy and have access to your content on any device you own. The more sophisticated versions also have a collaboration option to them which make group projects a snap. I, however, am not a fan of electronic note taking. My note taking process is more of a mind mapping jumble of organized mess, and I love it that way. Throughout the years I have developed my own code and system of arrows and boxes that makes perfect sense to me. The thought of being semi confined to text on an electronic device that could die or fail at any moment (we have ALL been there) doesn’t sit with me well, which is why I have not made the switch. I made this comic using BitStrips.com to light heartedly illustrate how technology could fail, but the teacher will always swoop in and save the day!

Credit to Amanda Sweeney 

The second concept that I focused on for this post is broadening the typical web search methods of my students. Too often “Google” is the quick solution for everything online. As our text points out, “Google is now one of the most visited Internet sites worldwide, and the company is continually expanding…” (Maloy 2013, p. 108).To “Google” is now considered a verb and I have many times referred to “consulting Dr. Google” when trying to self diagnose when something in my body goes awry. There are many other search engines out there on the vast World Wide Web as well as different types of searches, as we learned in Chapter 5. Some tips to get a better search is to add Boolean terms that are more restrictive, less restrictive or excluding (OR, AND, and NOT, respectively) to narrow what you are looking for.

Photo Credit to Zuyd, International

The third concept that I focused on in our reading was digital games for online learning. Teaching is a new learning path for me and online gaming wasn’t “a thing” when I was in school so this concept continues to fascinate me. Initially I was pretty against gaming, but now I am reconsidering. Our text points out many different types of online gaming- from virtual worlds, simulation games, browser based games and finally, apps. I typically think that there aren’t vast quantities of fans for something unless it is well liked and proven to have positive outcomes. This must be true for gamed-learning. Our text has approximately 10 pages of various gaming options, suggestions and research dedicated to this concept, so I believe there must be a lot of good coming from it. Sure enough, I recently did observation hours in a 1^st grade classroom. When the children were broken down into stations for the day, a desktop based game was one of the stations. I asked the teacher what she thought of it and she was very pleased with the quality and knowledge that the kids got from the online program. Sure enough, while doing research for the previous rubric assignment I searched for almost an hour before coming across an informational website geared towards kids. All of the others I found through web searches of “kids websites” were ALL some kind of game! The games seem to grab the engagement of children (and young adults!) and use their time with the child in the best possible way. I suppose if my children will be participating in online gaming, I would prefer that it is educational as it seems many other parents do.

Gif credit to Wikipedia Commons 

Resources: 

Dratini0. (2012, May 2). File:PascalTriangleAnimated2.gif. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PascalTriangleAnimated2.gif 

Effective searching. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://bibliotheek.zuyd.nl/en/information-literacy/finding-information/effective-searching 

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Sweeney, A. M. (2016, February 16). Technology Strikes Again! Retrieved February 21, 2016, from https://bitstrips.com/user/NR3VNS/read.php?comic_id=CX7CK