Blog #5

 I actually have not used Twitter before taking this course. I never needed to use it for anything in my past, and I found it a little difficult to navigate. After using it for this class, I actually really enjoyed being involved in a Twitter chat, which is something I did not even know existed. I loved how I was talking to people of all ages at the same time, while each of us were from different places and have had completely different experiences. I think using Twitter in a professional way can be very beneficial in my future, since it opens communication with people from all over. Twitter also has a lot of professional accounts, which I was unaware of before taking this class. I think you can really learn a lot from all of the different people on Twitter and it is a quick way to reach those people as well. 

I think that the digital divide is a very prevalent issue in all schools, even though it is not discussed frequently. I think the digital divide affects students' success drastically in schools because it creates an unequal advantage to some students, which automatically puts other students behind. In the scenario mentioned in our module, the girl with a lot of technology access has a large advantage over the other student, simply due to more opportunities and a more well-rounded knowledge of technology in general. Some causes of digital divide include affordability of computers and other technologies, accessibility to internet, and differencing in types of families. In my future classroom, I hope to be able to offer a computer cart to my students and allow for them to use school resources. I also will take a survey at the beginning of the year so I can know which students need a little extra help with technology and access to it.  

I think that in my future classroom, I will definitely try to use many academic software tools. Some that I know I want to use include Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, Kahoot, and Quizlet. Microsoft Word and Powerpoint are great tools that will be used in a lot of their academic careers, so it is important to begin to learn how to use these tools. Kahoot is a very fun way to make a lesson interesting and competitive, and I think students really enjoy using it so I would love to incorporate it in my class. Quizlet is another useful tool that is very beneficial to learning, so I would use this in my classroom as well.