Blog 7
My experience with the PLN Twitter has been going well so far. I like to be able to see what my peers are posting and what they are saying about some of the lessons and assignments from class. An exceptionally positive thing that it allowed for me was finding a group for the Wiki Web Source Evaluation assignment. One thing I have been cognoscente of is filtering some of the opinions I have on issues that I would normally be very vocal about on my personal Twitter. While I think it is important for professionals , including educators, to have opinions, I understand that we must be cautious when it comes to the types of materials being shared. I wouldn't say I rally forget about Twitter sometimes, but occasionally I have trouble remembering all of the different requirements we have to meet for the PLN assignment. In that sense, the assignment is not a realistic portrayal of what certain people might be doing in the real world when it comes to social media--they are not looking at a specific list of guidelines that they have to meet like responding to a certain number of people of people or retweeting a certain number of tweets. However, I do think it offers us some decent exposure to that platform.
After spending some time with it, I really did have fun with the Web Page Design assignment. I decided to try out the Weebly design, as stated in the instructions. I really hated it at first: it was hard to format pictures and text boxes where I wanted them to go, I could not figure out how to change the header on one page without it changing all of my other pages, etc. But after a while, I got the hang of it and I think my website turned out really beautifully. I like how easy it was to add features like contact boxes where a parent could send me questions or concerns directly through the web page. Other than the formatting itself, the hardest part of the assignment for me was choosing what kinds of materials I wanted to include. In the future, I would probably add a discussion board platform to my website and homework assignments/links. That will be easier to do, probably, when I am actually a teacher and have the content for it. But in summation, I think that this assignment definitely made me think about how a page specifically designed for my own class can be beneficial for students, parents, and myself. It makes announcements, class expectations, and ways to communicate simply and eliminates the process of printing out papers to send home with students which might get lost or forgotten, resulting in the parent never receiving any information.
Here's the link to my site: http://jtgoodson.weebly.com/
And here's a screenshot of my favorite page:
In class, we have been working with the bookmarking and annotating tool, Diigo. I do like this website and its capability to let you highlight and comment on webpages and PDFs without having to copy and paste or print anything. I can definitely see myself using this in the future with an upper-level English class. I think that it could improve research skills and allows students to collaborate with one another on the web, making group assignments more practical. It is also a way to share ideas and communicate with colleagues and other professionals who are researching and writing about the materials in which I am interested. Personally, I am a big fan of marking up the text I am reading so that I can engage more closely with the text and can better understand and analyze it. It also helps me to focus on specific sections or ideas when going back and reviewing a text. In the past, I have used a lot of paper and ink to print out documents so that I may do this. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Diigo is beneficial when it comes to saving paper and money, which is important to me. And lastly, using Diigo, whether collaboratively or for my individual endeavors, I can have an organized, virtual space for my research and work.
After spending some time with it, I really did have fun with the Web Page Design assignment. I decided to try out the Weebly design, as stated in the instructions. I really hated it at first: it was hard to format pictures and text boxes where I wanted them to go, I could not figure out how to change the header on one page without it changing all of my other pages, etc. But after a while, I got the hang of it and I think my website turned out really beautifully. I like how easy it was to add features like contact boxes where a parent could send me questions or concerns directly through the web page. Other than the formatting itself, the hardest part of the assignment for me was choosing what kinds of materials I wanted to include. In the future, I would probably add a discussion board platform to my website and homework assignments/links. That will be easier to do, probably, when I am actually a teacher and have the content for it. But in summation, I think that this assignment definitely made me think about how a page specifically designed for my own class can be beneficial for students, parents, and myself. It makes announcements, class expectations, and ways to communicate simply and eliminates the process of printing out papers to send home with students which might get lost or forgotten, resulting in the parent never receiving any information.
Here's the link to my site: http://jtgoodson.weebly.com/
And here's a screenshot of my favorite page:
In class, we have been working with the bookmarking and annotating tool, Diigo. I do like this website and its capability to let you highlight and comment on webpages and PDFs without having to copy and paste or print anything. I can definitely see myself using this in the future with an upper-level English class. I think that it could improve research skills and allows students to collaborate with one another on the web, making group assignments more practical. It is also a way to share ideas and communicate with colleagues and other professionals who are researching and writing about the materials in which I am interested. Personally, I am a big fan of marking up the text I am reading so that I can engage more closely with the text and can better understand and analyze it. It also helps me to focus on specific sections or ideas when going back and reviewing a text. In the past, I have used a lot of paper and ink to print out documents so that I may do this. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Diigo is beneficial when it comes to saving paper and money, which is important to me. And lastly, using Diigo, whether collaboratively or for my individual endeavors, I can have an organized, virtual space for my research and work.
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