EME 2040-Blog #8

I have now been working with the program Diigo for a couple weeks, and I feel confident using many different tools. I can quickly save websites, comment, annotate, and find sources to help with the topic I am researching. I could see this resource being very useful when having students research and share sources they have found. Especially in a group project, students could collaborate, comment, and share content quickly and easily. As a professional and future educator, I could see how this program could help me to collaborate with other teachers, save helpful sources, and easily access various tools. All in all, I am continuing to learn more about Diigo, and I find that this program provides a great teaching and learning tool for educators and students.

I think PowerPoint can be an extremely useful tool in the classroom and can aid in student comprehension and learning. When looking at Bloom’s taxonomy to analyze the use of PowerPoint, it can be explicitly seen as to how useful this tool can be. First, is to remember: through the use of PowerPoint, students can recall basic facts, and really engage with the teacher. Second, is understanding. PowerPoint provides an outline to the lesson and helps to keep students attention when explaining concepts and ideas. This helps students to recognize information and can be used to facilitate discussion. Third, is to apply information. Students can implement what they have seen and learned through the use of PowerPoint to their own work. Fourth, comes the analysis. Students use the information they have defined, described and discussed to differentiate and draw their own conclusions. Fifth, is to evaluate. By evaluating, students justify their stance, critique others, and support their ideas. This can be done with the use of PowerPoint when students lastly, create their own work. All of these steps of learning can be aided with the use of PowerPoint and can help students represent and display their ideas and stance on a specific topic. 

Technology is increasingly being used to provide easy access for professional development resources for teachers. Since teachers are vital to the future professionals we raise, they are also responsible for innovating technology into their classrooms. One online source that I have found to be helpful for teachers to stay informed on technological trends is teach hub. This website has lessons, teaching tools, tips, hot topics, access to other teacher’s blogs, opinions, and professional development resources. I think this cite has a lot of useful information, as well as tips to stay up to date with technology. Some of the tips this website provides is using social media, subscribing to an emerging educational technology newsletter, surrounding yourself with other professionals, and pursuing professional development courses. All of these things are tool that can aid educators in keeping their classroom caught up with new technology. Here is the link: https://www.teachhub.com/staying-current-technology-classroom