pencils, paper, chalkboards, and whiteboards
While I think the incorporation of technology into schooling is necessary and very beneficial, I think I will always stand for these traditional tools as well. I swear by writing down my notes in a notebook over typing on a computer because that is the way that I learn. However, technology is important and sworn by as well because everyone learns different.
Digital Tool in Practice: Twitter is an educational social networking tool where students and educators can participate in Twitter Chats organized by topic hashtags (e.g., #SSchat) to discuss current educational challenges like media literacy in the age of “fake news.”
I think it's neat to see the acceptance of social media such as Twitter in the educational world. I liked seeing examples of tools for all of the different types of learning theories as I'm sure classroom teachers could greatly benefit from tailoring their course tools to their students learning styles.
When students use AI-based assistive technologies, the data they generate on their personal device is “transmitted to a company who collects and stores the data, [which is then] permanently retained and tied to [that] specific, identifiable individual” (Amirault, 2019, p. 59)
This scares me. While I don't foresee myself ridding social media or other technologies any time soon, I wish that using technology didn't have to come along with this. It's terrifying to know that there are multiple files out there pertaining to every click I've ever made on the internet. I wonder if technology and social media will ever exist without this aspect.
tailoring advertisements (ads) to you,
This is something often talked about with my friends and I. We will be texting about something in a group chat, then before you know it someone sends a screenshot of an ad they got on tiktok or snapchat or instagram for the exact thing we were talking about. It's crazy how much data these apps collect from us and our phones.
1: Less is More
Less is more is something I think needs to be utilized across all technology. The example used here, Canva is great because while there is a lot of options and tools within the website to be used, you can still hide it, and it is pretty simple to navigate as it is all on one page. I also think of super popular social media apps like Instagram, who continuously add new features and tools that I honestly feel like just take up visual space on the app.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
I learned about UDL in my introduction to special education course so it's interesting to see it actually applied in a real life scenario! I took this class during COVID so learning for me was at an all time low, but I do recall learning about this and understanding it in a new context is neat.
When students feel a tool is easy to learn to use and navigate, they are more likely to engage with it, enjoy the learning experience, and focus their learning on developing knowledge and skills.
I completely agree with this. As a student that is not very confident in my technology capabilities, learning new tools and being asked to use them for college courses is intimidating. The college I went to freshman year used a completely different online system than UMass does. So, I had to learn two different systems within the matter of two years. Neither school offered any help or any walkthrough of the websites we used. I did nit enjoy having to make these switches because I lacked confidence with it.
Adobe Flash players, which were initially popular but later blocked by many browsers due to security issues
I don't understand what happened with Adobe Flash Player. So many websites used it, then Adobe just shut it down? I've gone on a few websites that were still asking for it to be downloaded in order to use, but it's clearly not a thing anymore. I had a friend who had to access a textbook online for this semester that required Adobe Flash. Isn't that problematic?
If you want to see newer pages, activate the “Tools” feature in the Google search and limit your search by time frame (e.g., setting this tool to “Past Month” for a search on “Yellowstone National Park” will limit results to the most recent posts about the park.) (see Figure 1).
I didn't know you could do this on google! I've done this on library websites when searching for scholarly articles but that's nice to know you can do it on google as well when you are allowed to use google for seaches with projects.