Blog Journal 2

 When it comes to using MS word I've been using it ever since about halfway through 7th grade. Before that I had been exclusively on Google Docs which was more popular up there. But I did do well with MS Word and actually took a high school level class in middle school about MS applications where I learned most my stuff even if I failed horrendously on my Word exam because I never studied and kind of just went through the motions with that class listening to an horror podcast in the background. But once I got to college I had another opportunity to learn all MS applications and I passed all of them with flying colors having no issue. All this working with MS Word for a better part of a half decade has made me very comfortable with the program and all the ins and outs it has.

One thing I saw that was interesting I saw with ISTE is how they incentivize schools to follow and keep up with the times. They help give out a lot of funding and grants which is a double edged sword because on one hand tech is becoming more and more valuable in the workplace and on the other hand it might put a lot of pressure especially on older teachers to keep up and continue trying to fix a fine class system that works for them. I do think however that they will become more important as new generations of teachers enter the workforce and are effectively culturally forced to be tech savvy. But one of the things that sticks out to me when it comes to points they emphasize for educators is the point to keep current on research which in todays world with a lot of instantaneous but incomplete information is way more important than a ton of people realize. 

I think while digital native is a good term to have on hand it has connotations that prove themselves wrong a lot. For example the way I see digital nativism is growing up and being comfortable with something. Like I'm a digital immigrant with AI only hearing about it in Junior year but for my sister AI came around when she was still trying to eat LEGO DUPLOS. But just because someone is used to something being around does not mean they know more about it than someone who did not grow up with it. Like while I might have grown up with Instagram I'm sure Mark Zuckerberg is going to be a lot more knowledgeable on how algorithms actually work. So digital native is a useful term but we should be aware of what it means and does not mean. 

Blog Post #1

 I want to say my main goal for this course is to learn if I like teaching or not. My grandfather was a teacher, my uncle was a teacher, my dad almost became a teacher so needless to say this is like in my genes. At the same time I used to be a tutor for geometry and an assistant teacher for a couple gifted kids so I know I'm at least capable. If I hate this class, it means I know my heart isn't in teaching and it's a lesson learned with three more credit hours under my belt but if I like it then this becomes something I actually might pursue.

As for if I use tech in education the answer was generally no. When I was teaching gifted kids I was making my own worksheets by hand making my own questions with no computer involved. But as for when I did geometry tutoring the tech was much more involved. Most notably I used Math Papa and Desmos. You don't have to know what those are but in short I effectively used the tools to show the people I was teaching the underlying concepts they were learning which in my experience produced the best results of who actually passed that class.

One thing I was learning about and really into for a bit there was geopolitics. I actually at one pointed wanted to minor in that but for reasons I won't go into that idea went down the gutter. But when I was into that there were a couple places I got my info from which included my class on International relations where because the class was so big it was mostly Canvas posted lectures that I learned through. I also had things like social media, and YouTube channels, and even I think watching the chaos of online debates was fun and at rare time educational to geopolitics I suppose. So I would say that was my kind of Personal Learning Network for that interest in particular.