Blog Post #4

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    Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to have any form of social media until I reached high school. I was allowed to get Pinterest in middle school, but only to look up different craft ideas and recipes. When I reached 9th grade, I made my Instagram account. This helped me feel more connected with my friends. I was able to communicate with them on a different platform, and I was able to keep up with what they’re doing better. Currently, Instagram is helping me remain connected with some of my friends since moving away for college. During my junior year, I was finally allowed to download snapchat. This helped me feel more connected with not just my friends, but also my peers. Snapchat was used a lot in high school for class group chats and planning activities. Social media has helped me communicate with people in my community and made me more connected with my friends. In the future, I anticipate social media helping me communicate and stay connected with colleagues. I can also use social media to draw inspiration for classroom activities and decorations. 

    I believe that I grew up in a digitally rich school area. Most of my classrooms had either a computer cart, iPads, or a few desktop computers. My assignments slowly became more and more digital, and in elementary school we had typing lessons. Technology has always been part of curriculum in some way, shape, or form. This has made me more proficient in technology. However, the schools I went to primarily used google applications, so I am the most confident in my skills using those. Because of my schools primarily using these applications, I really don’t have much practice with anything else. I think broadening the applications used in schools could have helped me feel more confident and given me a wider range of skills for the real world. 

I really love the idea of using collaborative writing and social annotations in the classroom. It is a great way to get students collaborating, while still seeing what they know individually. Google Docs, Microsoft Word 365, Wiki, and Etherpad are all social annotation tools I want to try in my classroom one day. I would slowly introduce these tools into my class over time. I would start by introducing a paper copy of a text and teaching my kids how to annotate regularly. Then I would use that same text on one of the applications listed above and have the children transfer some of their annotations onto the website. Then I would start using new texts. That way my students would understand how to annotate, and then learn how to use the website, and then put the two skills together. These types of tools are a great way to see what the kids are thinking and have them see what their peers are thinking. It promotes collaboration and fosters digital learning in the classroom.

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