The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools

The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools

The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught
in Schools. (2013, July 15). Retrieved December 4, 2015, from
http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/07/16/the-impact-of-digital-tools-on-student-writing-and-how-writing-is-taught-in-schools/?utm_expid=53098246-2.Lly4CFSVQG2lphsg-KopIg.0&utm_referrer=http://www.pewinternet.org/topics/teens-and-technology/pages%

In this article, you will find the pro's and con's of the use of technology as a writing tool in education. There are some concerns with such issues with plagiarism and fair use that would have a negative impact. Overall, teachers view the internet in a positive aspect, that gives students an audience, personal expression and more creativity. With the use of technology, students and teachers have a boarder interactive tools that enhance the ability to teaching/learning all properties of writing. Due to the various apps that require that you use your writing skills, most teens of this era will have done more writing in their lifetime than that of someone in their 40's. Teachers understand that due to these many apps there seems to be a few more various forms of writing. However, being able to collaborate works students and teachers are able to revise and improve writing assignments. Creativity also seems to have become a major factor that many teachers look for in student work. So many outlets to encourage and develop writing skills, such as blogs, comic strips, webpages.
All in all, technology is having a great impact in our academics. Technology is a fantastic tool for writing in our schools, and teacher should utilize it to its fullest capabilities.

Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015

Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015

Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015. (2015, April 8). Retrieved December 4, 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/?utm_expid=53098246-2.Lly4CFSVQG2lphsg-KopIg.0&utm_referrer=http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/introduction-teens-tech/

This article really breaks down the amount of time a typical teenager spends online. With the multitude of devices out there that are at arms reach for teens of today, it's no mystery why. Studies show that a large majority of teens today are able to access the internet. This study also seems to break down internet  use by gender, type of device, and even type of apps that are mostly used  by teens today. These numbers seem to amaze me. I know I probably shouldn't be surprised, however just seeing those percentages and the amount of technology that is being used by teens today is mind-boggling. With technology advancing at an extremely fast rate, I can only foresee that these numbers are only going to continue to climb the more technology evolves.   

'How do they even do that?': How Today’s Technology is Shaping Tomorrow’s Students

'How do they even do that?': How Today’s Technology is Shaping Tomorrow’s Students



I must say this article makes me wonder what life would be like for my children once they hit their college years. I have four boys right now who are 13, 12, 10, and 6 months old, and after reading the data and facts about how dramatic and quickly technology is changing shocks me. I know technology has recently gone through a sort of "growth spurt", but once you see it on paper or should I say on the screen, it will ultimately wow you.  It is crazy seeing how technology was 20 years ago. I can't imagine my life without WIFI, my laptop, and most importantly my smartphone. I began thinking about the many devices I currently have running this household. If I began to break it down, you would probably think I was a Best Buy. I am not one of those teachers that is opposed to technology in the classroom. I think it has it's place and will always need to be directed by a trained educator. It's our job to make sure that the students of the future utilize technology to it's fullest capabilities in the correct manner. I am not sure what students will be like in the future, I imagine some Back to the Future kind of stuff. What I do know is that we(educators) will always have a place here, right next to yours truly, TECHNOLOGY!

Reflections

Here is where I will be giving my final reflections on what I have learned and what I will take with me to share with other fellow educators. First, let me begin by saying that this class has got to be one of my top five classes of all my educational experiences. I don't think I have ever enjoyed creating so many things through technology. I started this class with the first assignment saying, "We have to do what?", to saying, "Oh, that was so cool!" Now, I share the link to my blog to as many teachers on my campus just so that may have an idea of the many exciting and easy to use apps and websites that technology has to offer. I am very proud of what I have created here and know that I can some how help others in a way.

Not all apps were easy and fun to work with. For instance, I was never able to explore ToonDoon.com for some reason or another. Blogs weren't all easy to work with either, such as Newsblur and Diggreader. Just wasn't feeling it for me.

None the less, there were many things that rather enjoyed of much. I loved Animoto, Screencast-o-Matic, QR codes, and Pixton.com for comics. But......I ABSOLUTELY loved Jing, Evernote, and Twitter the most for some reason. Love that with Jing it is always there to take a Screenshot. Evernote is AWESOME program that lets you edit anything! LOVE IT! Twitter just has so much to offer. Great ideas and information for all sorts of educators.

On The Corner of Instagram and Vine

So, it's come to my attention that these two apps have made some wonderful progress in the field of education. Meaning that, even though these are typically used for personal use, educators have found ways to utilize these apps to their own advantage. Gimme a minute of your time so that I may show you how. Lets start with Vine, this application lets you create a six second video that loops over and over again. How does this help an educator? Great question, you can make videos about inference, recreate scenes from books, create unit previews of upcoming class lessons, are special announcements for students and parents. For instance, I created one for my choir parents, so that they may see their child in action in a recording studio for this holiday season.







Instagram has its advantages as well. Really great way to give updates of events that we know we could share with students and parents. Instagram is how I have shared moments that no parent would want to miss! Here are some examples of how I have been able to share pictures to parents.

AGL DRUMLINE in the house @ the homecoming parade! So proud!

A photo posted by Leti Pedraza (@lrodz123) on Nov 20, 2015 at 5:40pm PST

AGL CHOIR ready to spread some Christmas spirit!

A photo posted by Leti Pedraza (@lrodz123) on Nov 20, 2015 at 5:38pm PST

Both apps are easy to use if you take the time to explore your options on how to utilize it the best of your advantage. I personally enjoy using both and will continue for as long as I can.

Screencasts

Screencasts can be a great tool for teachers, especially if you are attempting to do a flipped classroom type of instruction. Your students still get the full lesson through you. Almost feels like your standing right in front of them or at least in the same room.

So here are some great websites that can be used to help you create your own screencast videos. First, let me start with Screenr. It seemed like I was going to have fun creating my screencast with this one, however it did not seem to work since I do not have the current java application to run the program. That was fine because I was in fact able to use Screencast-O-Matic, which was super easy to use. Had no problem creating this video here for you, that shows you how to use another helpful site called Recite.com.

I found this website to be amazingly easy to use. Create a free account as soon as you can and utilize this website.

Now, I know that this blog should be about screencasts, however I am going to talk about another site that is free to use, just have to download. This site is called Jing. Jing is kinda like Evernote, but you are able to take a screenshot but that's already cropped.  After you have taken your picture you are able to edit onto it, just like Evernote. I personally like Evernote more, but that does not mean that I will not utilize this resource as well. Here is a picture I saved from Jing while I was messing around with it.

Now, if you like to do most of your technology projects off of an iPad, I got something for you there as well. Explain a Website is an awesome app that can do a screencast and with this app your able to upload directly to Evernote. With this app you are also able to record your screen and also make markings and highlights to you liking at the same time. I fell in love with just about every single one of these resourceful tools. Wish I would have had the opportunity to explore Screenr for you all and be able to give you a better critique on the site. Hopefully they fix it to where it is easier to run. I hope my opinion helps you complete whatever tech project you got going on. Have fun exploring!

Cartoons and Comics for Lessons

Well I know that being a teacher now a days is tough, with having so much of our world run through technology.
So, I say to all my fellow teachers/educators, get with the program and roll with the punches. It has become an era where grasping a young learner is a challenge in it's self. Here are some helpful websites with tips and advice on which is far better than the others.

So let's start with ToonDoon.com, checking out the website for the first time was rather exciting. I thought, this looks so cartoonish my students will love it! However, I was able to create an account but making an actual cartoon, well, let's just say I'm still waiting for my character to load.

Next, there is Makebeliefscomix.com, where you can make comics, save as a picture, and print to activity sheets. Great idea for the website, on the other hand editing was a bit frustrating with having to click back and fourth from sizing the object to moving it, or flipping it. Just to much clicking here and there. Got so tired of it and possibly irritated by it all. If you have the patients for it, it can give you a beautiful outcome. Here is mine before I gave up on it.

Lastly, is Pixton.com, which I found overall the best as far as creating comic book strips goes. I found this site so easy to use and create. It was so easy I started looking for my "Staples" button that says, "That was easy!". This site gives you the ability to change the pose of the characters however you want them. Just all and all a wonderful site, that you can also embed your comic to website or a blog, like this.

Online Book Communities

There are many websites that will help you create your own book collections and share your critiques with friends and social networks. I have explored a few sites and I hope that my views on them will help you to decide which is better suited for you.

First, I'd like to talk about the ones I felt were a little more on the personal side, much like a Facebook profile. These were not very kid friendly, so if you decide to incorporate these into lessons as a teacher, I really hope you continue reading to the end before you make a choice on which one is best for the classroom. For instance, BookLikes.com, has a beautiful wood like theme that looks a lot like Facebook. Nothing about it to me made me think of books though. Still, all in all, would be great as a personal booklisting and to share from there. The other would be GoodReads.com, very simple layout not much to see, even though I have expressed my appreciation for the more simpler things in life, I would think that in some cases, more would be better.

The next site I'd like to talk about is Shelfari.com. I really like this site, had a very elegant look to it and had many useful features, such as being able to add your book list to your blog. Other features that are that you can share and view what friends are enjoying about your book list.

Another website that you might find useful is LibraryThing.com. This site gives some of the same features plus a few more. You are able to view your book list in list format or by cover. Can change the size of your covers and create groups, a perfect feature for a secondary teacher. However, in list format you are also able to view many other details about each book, such as ratings and comments/reviews from other users.

The last website that I will discuss is BiblioNasium.com. This website is the perfect site for elementary level teacher/librarian. With features such as, creating a profile for student use, run reports, print reports and parent letters, and gives resources that can assists teachers. Allows you to make and share with your students which books are your favorites, a recommended reading, or a required reading for them. Awesome website with an appealing eye to any young learner of the elementary level.

All pictures were altered and edited using Evernote. A wonderful application that allows you to edit photos the way you want them. Love it and highly recommend it.

Podcast

After some careful research, I have come to the conclusion that I now love Podcasting! I never realized how helpful this type of educational tool could be, and allows for some much needed time management. Which, if you are a teacher you know exactly what I'm talking about. So, I explored through some websites that could be used to help or fully create your podcasts, and here is my opinion on these amazing websites.

Now, I really loved these websites, and I know that I will be using these sites for a variety of projects that I plan to implement into my campus, my lessons, and of course, share with my fellow educators.

I'd like to start with SoundCloud, great website that allows you to create any type of audio file, and saves to the site so that you may access it from anywhere and share to all. AudioBoom, is another helpful site to teachers everywhere, here you are allowed to create files of video and audio combined, however it does not allow to add background music. Which is not a huge disappointment, but would make some video making a little more professional sounding. PodOmatic, is basically the same thing as the others that I have just mentioned, except, that you can listen to your creation with friends or classrooms at the same time. I personally like iMovie, yes I'm a Mac user, and I will admit it, took me a while to learn how to navigate on this computer, however I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Remember, that's my opinion, and no offense to PC users. So using iMovie I was able to create this short video by using this tool. I have decided to share this video with you. So here goes and I hope you enjoy it!

Video & QR Codes in the Library

Students in this day and age have become visual learners. In that I mean everything is on a video, and there's nothing wrong with that. I love using video to assist in my lessons, and my students love it. YouTube can be a very important resource in that area. There are tons of great videos that are posted that can be advantageous to a teacher/librarian. With that being said, here are some links of helpful videos that I think could help you in lessons and some that I kids would just love.

This first video comes from "Calypso Gilstrap" on YouTube, that was made to help students familiarize themselves with their school library. I plan to do this same video for my library some day!

This video here comes from the same channel on what is available for student use and how to use these resources as a student. I think students will love this!

This Channel is "The Unquiet Librarian" and this person tends to post lots of helpful videos for their students. This video is a perfect example of the type of help you could find in this channel.

These videos from this particular channel are geared towards high school students, however I think students always enjoy seeing their classmates on video discussing something that might come in handy one day.

This video might just be my favorite. This comes from the "pikesvillelibrary" channel, which was made to show students the available resources and activities that are offered from their library. Love the upbeat feel to this video.

Coming from the same channel, students will love seeing special events held in the library showcased on YouTube.

I really enjoyed this video that was made to promote and encourage more reading of books from the library. This video was found on "bbmsmedia" channel, and I adored the fact that the videos posted were student created. Which allows for other students to relate and really connect to the videos.

This video is provided from the same channel source and is a cute and creative way to get students to understand the consequences of overdue books.  Absolutely love!

Blogs, Blogs, and More Blogs

Exploring the world of Blogging has been an interesting experience. I really had no idea how popular or informative this web media could be. I have enjoyed peeking into various websites that offer free sign up to digital communities specially for bloggers. I would like to take this time to give my own critique on some of these sites.

First, I will start with those that just didn't do it for me. So lets start with Newsblur, very busy site. There is a lot going on here, which made it really hard for me to figure out how to navigate through it. I like things to be simple, no time in my life to spend trying to guess where everything is. Another site I was not to pleased with was Diggreader. I just recently began using Twitter and this website insisted on linking up with my Twitter or Facebook account. I don't want to link up blogging to my twitter or Facebook account, and I hated that I couldn't do much unless I did just that. Not pleased at all!

On the other hand, not all were a huge disappointment. For instance, Bloglovin seemed very easy to navigate through. With a simple layout, it made using this blog comfortable for me.However,
Tumblr, was my favorite though, very easy to use which made it quick to see that as a librarian I would really be able to utilize this blogging site. Some things I saw others doing was promote new books & ebooks, announce upcoming events, and showcase these special events. I have picked a few blogs that I am following that I would like to share.
  "The Common Librarian" found her blog interesting, I just loved how actively involved her library is on her blog. http://thecommonlibrarian.tumblr.com/
"Simon School Bus" I really liked what he had to offer. Lots of really neat information that we could share with our students of any age. http://simonschoolbus.tumblr.com/
"Do-It-Yourself Library School" great blog for librarians, filled with helpful how-to information and some library humor to ease the role of librarian for a bit. http://diylibraryschool.tumblr.com/
"Blurbs on Teaching" her blog is just random thoughts or articles on teaching, which I enjoyed reading out of sheer entertainment and the fact that I can relate to her strife. http://windycityteacher.tumblr.com/
"School Libraries Rock" not much activity on this blog, but what's there I want to share. http://nngreene.tumblr.com/
"The LibRAWRian" love her upbeat and modern day spin on libraries for the younger generation. Must check her blog out. http://librawrian.tumblr.com/

Last but not least I would like to add my Tumblr URL, to see other awesome blog finds that I will discover as I continue to make the most of my new blog discovery.https://www.tumblr.com/blog/luvnpurple4

Mining Pew - Parents and Social Media

Duggan, M., & Lenhart, A. (2015, July 16). Parents and Social Media. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

In this article I learned that social media is a part of everyone's way of living. It does not matter what your race, income, male or, female social media is everywhere! However, what does change about some of these demographics is the time and reliability that is given to these social medias. This article is based off of a survey given to random people of the United States. From this research, they were able to come to the conclusion that parents do in fact rely on social media or advice in almost every area of life, more specific, parenting.

According to their results, mothers seem to be more involved with keeping in touch and relying on social media for approval, support, and seeking help in parenting. Some fathers admitted to doing the same, however the numbers are substantially lower than that of mothers.

I will admit, that I myself have sought out via Facebook support and approval of parenting skills. I have literally become a "Pinterestista" these days looking for ways to get my three pre-teen boys to do chores.
Is this bad? Because I look to social media for information on parenting, does that make me a bad mom? I don't feel that way. I have a very busy life. Work, school, family, the only things that matter the most to me. Seeking out information through these resources can make my life, and anyone else for that matter, easier. So, I say to the young and old log on and be all the parent you can be.

*This article has 37 pages

Twitter, Yay or Nay?

 I say YAY! 

If used correctly this type of social media can be of so much help. Going through a few Tweets from some that I follow, I have learned so many new things. Learning tools to implement in the classroom that integrate technology in huge way. For instance, The Daring Librarian is exactly as she is described in her profile name, daring. My favorite would have to be the ability to learn straight form park rangers as mentioned in this tweet here.

Did you know that @YellowstoneNPS Rangers can #Skype with classrooms? Find out more: http://t.co/1Iyk6zR9N3 @SkypeClassroom #MSFTEDU

— Microsoft Education (@Microsoft_EDU) August 31, 2015

Tony Vincent has a serious passion for learning, at least that's what I gather from his tweets. He really loves to share all his new experiences of technology learning tools. Useful info that might be used in the future or find a way to convince administrators for future purchases. This is one tweet I found useful.

Tweak Apple TV to make it more classroom friendly: http://t.co/Sg1p2XWQ87 #ipaded #adechat #edtechchat pic.twitter.com/VgYVkB4YbS

— Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) August 24, 2015

Buffy J. Hamilton is very passionate about expressing her feelings about everything. Could be the weather or her frustrations of librarian woes. However, this allows us to learn about the things that work or don't work through her experiences. We can follow her to find tweets that work, such as this one.

And thanks to @buffyjhamilton and @smokeylit for the inspiration! https://t.co/EJscg0kYQG

— Jennifer Lund (@jen_lund) September 2, 2015

Jim Lerman loves to tweet of the latest Google tool available to today's teachers. Tons of helpful technology info is what you will find when you become a follower of Lerman. Example of the type of tweets you will find helpful would be like this one.

4 Tips for Having Students Take Notes in Google Docs ^ Teacher Tech ^ by Alice Keeler http://t.co/ionocVDBiq pic.twitter.com/K13zqbw48J

— Jim Lerman (@jimlerman) September 3, 2015

Linda W. Braun is all for making sure educators know of the latest informative articles on new technology resources. Find articles like this when you follower her.

RT @sljournal: IMLS Publishes Report on Learning in Libraries | LJ INFOdocket http://t.co/yeONsDhe9z

— Linda W Braun (@lbraun2000) August 27, 2015

Kathy Schrock is sure to give us some personal insight of herself and also offers some educational resources to help any educator. Here is a tweet that I found interesting enough to share.

.@zeitz My favorite explanation of an app-smashing lesson.https://t.co/CG7WIIEQmg from @AppEducationFox

— Kathy Schrock (@kathyschrock) August 25, 2015

If you would like to know how I embedded these twitter posts is actually really simple.  Just watch this helpful video that I have embedded here just for you.

Libraries on Facebook

School libraries have now opened the doors of Facebook to all! This seem to work out great for those who utilize the advantages of having a Facebook page. As I explore the pages of these school libraries, I see those that have not been updated since 2012, and then there's the one's that are even giving other librarians tips on keep the book shelves organized. Not many comments are left to any of the pages, however the few comments that were left were of praise to the librarian for doing so much work for their students. I love the use of Facebook to inform students and parents of what is happening and what is to come from the school library. You can post your schedule of events, such as, literacy nights, book fairs, meet the author, etc. Post times of when the library is operational to students and for parents. Lots of great use through Facebook. Highly recommended to all librarians!

Intro of Me!

Hello!
My name is Leticia Rodriguez, I am a music teacher at Leal Elementary in San Benito, TX, also my hometown. I teach Kinder through 5th and it's been great and all, but not exactly what I was expecting to do when I got my degree for Music Education. I always thought my place was in the band directing field, however life doesn't always go as planned, does it? So, any who, I am ready for change and have decided to continue my education and pursue my master in Library Science. I am creating this blog to educate other about useful educational tools of technology that can help as resources in the classroom. Hope it helps you and please feel free to leave feedback, especially if I have made a mistake on something in particular. Thanks for stopping in.