Ms. Ky @koalaclassroom-blog - Tumblr Blog

Blog (After)

This blog has been alright. I enjoyed writing about the various things we did in class even if it was a bit tedious sometimes. It is interesting to go back and look as the before posts from assignments and compare them to the after posts. I think the post I liked writing about the best was the technology disconnect assignment. I liked blogging about what I was doing and the different struggles and feelings I had towards being disconnected from technology. It was a fun little project and blogging about it was way more fun then writing a whole paper or something boring like that. This blog was new for me, although I have a personal tumblr, it is nothing like this one so it was cool to learn how to do something new.

#IM260

What I learned in IM260

I learned a lot of different things about technology in this class. I never knew how to make an infographic or how to make an annotated bibliography in Refworks. I also learned a lot from the various projects. The research paper was very educational for me, it helped me think more about doing special education as a minor and if I do now I have knowledge on certain things I would have to learn about later like the technology used by students with disabilities. I also got to see a whole different side of twitter by doing the professional twitter assignment. Seeing the educational side of twitter was new for me and really helped me with my field of study. Making a website was also new for me and very interesting, I’ve always wondered how to do that so it’s cool to know now what goes into creating it. In the next couple of weeks we have a few more assignments and I’m ready to learn something new.

#IM260

Research Paper (After)

Writing this research paper was kind of a chore. I did like researching my topic but it became a lot to write about. There are so many parts of assistive technology that I didn’t get to put in my paper just because it would’ve dragged on and became too much information for the reader. There were so many AT devices and so much history and data it became too much to put in my paper so I just picked what I thought was most important to prove my thesis statement true. I didn’t really find any data that disproved my thesis, there of course was some negative things I read but most of it was contradicted after. The infographic part was fun, I redid it and made it artsy. I liked analyzing my data from the survey and using it in my paper. I ended up getting 50 responses on my survey which really was surprising and helpful. I think I did okay on this paper, my research was good and my paper was written decently well. I hope I get a good grade for it.

#IM260

Twitter (After)

Doing this twitter assignment was interesting. I actually got to see a lot of news regarding education through twitter. There is a lot happening with politics and education in the world right now. Betsy DeVos was elected and public educators are furious, it was very interesting and educational to see all the twitter feed from educators and public schools voicing their opinions and posting articles about this topic. It’s important to know about this kind of stuff about the real world and your profession. I liked doing this assignment because I know how to use twitter I have known since 8th grade so it was easy to understand. I also liked it because I actually gained some knowledge.

#IM260

Research Paper (before)

Writing a research paper is nothing new for me but I’m also not too great at structure. I’m interested in my topic and excited to learn more about it so maybe I will enjoy this paper. I’m researching technology in special education also known as assistive technology. I’m considering doing special education as a minor so researching this kind of stuff will be helpful in aiding my decision. Hopefully this paper goes well and I use enough sources that help my paper. I’m ready to research!

#IM260

Twitter (Before)

I’m not really sure what I’m going to tweet about on this professional twitter. This assignment is a little odd to me because I don’t feel like I’m a professional in any sense so having a professional twitter doesn’t seem right. I hope to find things to tweet about and actual gain followers and knowledge. I wonder if this twitter will actually be helpful and useful in my future when I start my profession as a teacher.

#IM260

Relfection

So far this class has taught me some new things. I’ve learned a lot about creating things digitally like a website and an infographic. I hope to continue to learn more things like this so I can have more useful knowledge for when I’m a teacher in a classroom. Some of the information we’ve covered I was already aware of. I’ve had a tumblr blog for 6 years and a twitter for 5 so using those sites is nothing new for me. It is new to be professional on these sites but even before I had to make a professional twitter I still kept my account clean and free of swear words or inappropriate things, I’ve always been careful with internet blogs like that. I also an used to annotated bibliographies and research essays but I like doing the paper. I really enjoy that these papers are incorporating our interests and majors. I hope to continue enjoying this class and keep learning about technology.

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Infographic After

I just turned in my infographic and I’m fairly certain it’s not enough. I also had a lot of problems with turning in documents on D2L. My KWHL chart was done in time but D2L would not take it. I emailed it to the professor and hopefully I can get this problem figured out because it happens a lot. I hope to get good feedback on this infographic because I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing and I want the finished one to be done right for my essay and website. I think the coloring that I chose and the background were well chosen but I didn’t use enough questions and I don’t know how to word them right without making them too long. I don’t think this is one of my better projects for this class but I hope to make up for it and maybe redo this assignment,

#im260

Infographic before

I have never created an infographic before and I’m very confused on what I am suppose to do. I don’t quite have all of my survey results yet although I’m close. I have 26 answers right now and the answers are very interesting and useful. I plan to use good questions from my survey that can prove some kind of point to the viewers. I will use my questions regarding technology for people with different kinds of disabilities in school. This assignment confuses me though so I’m going to do my best and hope I do it right. I think I’ll make a couple pie graphs about two of the questions in my survey. I don’t have a lot of time to do this assignment so hopefully it’s enough.

Annotated Bibliography After

Creating the annotated bibliography took a lot of time to complete. I had a lot of trouble when saving sources and going back to them. I think the sources I picked for this essay will help me a lot but I definitely think I’ll need a few more that aren’t scholarly. Doing this bibliography did get me excited to actually write the paper. This is a subject I’m extremely interested in considering it has a lot to do with my major and potentially my minor. I hope I can use all 10 of these sources in my paper and make it educational. I think i did this assignment right so I’m hoping to get an A!

#im260

Annotated Bibliography Before

I have written an annotated bibliography before but it took a very long time. This annotated bibliography will be a bit more difficult because there are many different directions I could go in for this paper. I think it will take me a few hours and some serious thought. I will use the 10 best sources I can find, I want to use a lot of scholarly sources so my paper can sound as professional as possible and have the most accurate information there is. I hope I do it right and hopefully it helps me a lot with my paper on Technology in Special Education.

#im260

Field notes (typed after being hand written)

Beginning: I just turned my phone off and packed away my laptop for the next couple days. It’s about 8:30am and everyone is just waking up to go out on the beach for the day! Hopefully the sun and beach volleyball will keep me distracted from being on my phone!

11am : I didn’t think about not having my phone really until now when i remembered I need to log how I’m doing. The weather is great and I have no reason to stare at a screen!

2pm : I almost pulled out my phone at lunch to take a picture of my delicious thai food to put on snapchat, kind of disappointed I couldn’t take a picture to remember it but I guess that’s what my brain is for!

5pm: We’re going out to a club tonight and me and the girls were getting ready and everyone was taking selfies. Really wish I could’ve used my phone for that but oh well! So far so good.

8pm: Just spent an hour getting lost in Panama City. The gas stations here are sketchy and for my own safety I wish I would’ve been able to use my phone for directions. I think this shows how being glued to our technology isn’t always a bad thing.

10pm: Taking a break at the club to go to the bathroom and write a short note. Being without social media or even a person to call makes being in clubs very boring.

11:30pm: I was insanely bored a the club and wanted to be on my phone the whole time. That’s a little pathetic but I really don’t like clubs, this made me realize how much I rely on my technology to get me through situations that I don’t like being in. I’m very glad I didn’t do this project on the 21 hour car ride home.

Technology Disconnect (After)

Disconnecting from technology completely is very hard. The worst part of leaving all technology behind is being in a foreign place and needing to find directions. While in Florida, we had some trouble finding our way around and without the use of google maps I was pretty much stranded. Luckily, I thought to as a gas station worker for directions and made it to my destination eventually. I wouldn’t advise doing this to anyone though, being without a phone that can save you in an emergency when you’re in an unfamiliar place with just 2 other people is scary. Other than that experience, it wasn’t so bad. I spent all day on the beach soaking up the sun and not caring one bit about social media. It wasn’t until night time when I really missed and habit of scrolling pointlessly through twitter and instagram to pass time at a night club I didn’t want to be at or while laying in bed trying to fall asleep. One day wasn’t too bad, I think I may have caved if it was any longer though. One thing that was stupid of me was I forgot to mention to my mother that I was doing this project while on vacation so I had some very worried text messages when I was done with the project! It’s definitely a weird experience, i advise trying it sometime when you’re not in a new place and when you can enjoy nature or other surroundings.

#IM260 #Technology disconnect

Technology Disconnect (Before)

I will be doing my technology disconnect project when I go on vacation to Florida. Realistically, not using technology for me is a big deal, but I’m hoping it will be easier in Florida because I will be distracted by the vacation and all the beautiful nature and fun things to do around me. It may be hard when it comes to things like using google maps because I will be in an unfamiliar place. It also may be hard if I need to call a taxi or call home, but hopefully I won’t run into these problems much. Typically I use technology probably more than half of my day, whether it’s to do homework. to browse social media, to have some background noise or to call up a friend. I think being on the beach enjoying the sun and the waves will help distract me, the only thing is I might miss taking snapchats of it!

#technology #disconnected #IM260

Survey posted!

For anyone who would like to participate in a quick anonymous survey about assistive technology please click this link and spent 30 seconds answering 10 simple questions.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JHTF5HY

I hope to obtain at least 30 response and get a good understanding of how much a random sample of people know about assistive technology and special education. I will be interesting to see the results and how some answers to certain questions affect others.

Survey

Creating a survey took a lot of thought. It was important to think about the way questions are worded and how they may be perceived differently to different people. I had to make sure the questions are as clear as possible so any population could participate in the study. The questions I asked were mainly to get a basic understanding of people’s opinions on technology in schools and assistive technology. I also tried to get some background knowledge on how much people really know about special education and people with disabilities. It will be interesting to see the results.

#IM260

The latest Tweets from Kyla Yost (@ky_yost). I'm a Freshman majoring in Elementary Education at St. Cloud State University. St Cloud, MN

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