Digital Blog Post f

Chapter 12 discusses integrating technology and creating change as teacher leaders. As this post concludes my blog in this class, I thought this would be a good chapter to cover since it addresses more specifically teachers and technology- and will give me a broad view of my own personal experiences I may encounter. Chapter twelve discusses technology integration, educational change, and professional learning networks as the ingredients teachers need to more successfully infuse technology into classroom instruction and professional work.
The first thing I found interesting in this chapter was how it emphasizes the use of technology most teachers dont get the education and pre-knowledge to master. As a future educator, I must be willing to address the new changes of technology and learn form my past experiences. The textbook describes the technology-using educator can be defined as someone who makes informed choices with technology- I could use this advice by only using technology for whenever it has the potential to increase student involvement, and not so much for when I have low classroom activity. Secondly, the technology-using educator explores technology. I could take this into affect by allowing my students the availability to see technology in all of its worth- the good and bad. This will help develop informed students as well as critics in the education world. Lastly, the technology-using teacher promotes change. I see this as simply being a change in perspective, as we must not change with the world for our own good, but to rather blossom with it.
Another topic I found interesting was stages of technology integration. I was interested in learning what stage I am in right now as a student and the potential stages I could grow into as an educator. According to the text and my own opinion, I am in the "adaptation" stage. This stage refers to, if I was an educator already, teachers fully integrating new technology into traditional classroom practices. At the adaptation stage, a teacher is using technology regularly as a part of teaching. I feel the main reason I am at this stage already is solely due to the generation I was born into, as it seemed the beginning of the technology transfer.

Digital Blog Post E

For this blog, I chose to write about the concepts delivered in chapter 9- expressing creativity with multimedia and technologies. Chapter 9 focuses on presenting and sharing information through the use of multimedia and digital technologies. presentation software, commercially made and hand crafted videos, digital cameras, movie making software, and podcasts/video-casts offer ways for teachers and students to express themselves creatively across the curriculum. I thought this was a very important chapter to cover as these resources will be used throughout my teaching career and I will be able to apply what I have seen in my current classes as a student to what I wish to do as a teacher.

I wanted to explore PowerPoint and the next generation tools as this will most likely be my backbone to my classroom lectures. PowerPoint has been used by many teachers, of all grade levels and subjects, to aid in the classroom for many years. For teachers, who must continually present information to students in ways that will engage and inspire, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of PowerPoint is essential. By loading text, data and images into PowerPoint, teachers can produce slides for visual information displays featuring colorful graphics, pop up or slide in windows. and other attention getting techniques. As a student, I can see and remember the ways my past teachers have used PowerPoint.
What I found most interesting about PowerPoint was Tutte's critique of the technology. Theorist Edward Tutte argued that PowerPoint didn't in fact benefit teachers, but instead weakened them. He describes the advantages and disadvantages of this tool, Although I agree with some of his arguement, I think we must be able to expand our world and open up to the technologies our society has given to us. As teachers, it is our job to create a classroom environment that engages our students through technology, but leading them down that path with our past goals in mind.

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.