Learning Link

      Being a person in tech in the educational field, you have to constantly be on top of every new device, app, or trend in technology.  Teachers have to integrate technology into their lessons, and sometimes it's already built into a curriculum. They need to keep up with any new or updated technology they could use in their classroom. "With 21st -century skills, teachers should be competent in using appropriate technologies and designing lessons to create a new learning culture (Chai et al., 2017)" (Elmali & Kiyici, 2022, p. 66). School leaders, such as administration, must keep up with technology in order to know what their teachers need professional development on. IT departments have to keep up with any new technology that might be used by a teacher or student to make sure that it's safe for the district as a whole. This can be a hard endeavor because something changes about technology daily.       For skill 7E: Enhance communi...

     My PLC book was EdTech Essentials by Monica Burns. In this book, Burns gives multiple examples of EdTech tools that teachers can safely use with or for their students in different learning environments. For example, they discuss ways to use NearPod or Pear Deck to assess students during a lesson. Another example is the use of Seesaw for students to share their classwork.       Educators have many reasons for using EdTech tools. Tech tools reduce administrative time, increase student engagement, and enable faster access to assessment data. Burns shows there are multiple ways to do all of this through technology. Tech tools are ultimately a great equalizer with students. Students come with a wide range of needs, and technology can help bridge many gaps in diverse learning. Teachers want all of their students to be able to access the work they assign in their classroom, and technology can help with this. "In education, access to information is the f...

     Social media started off as a fun way to share happenings in someone's life or to network with your fellow college students. It was not something that was a necessity. Today, you might miss out on important updates from your friends and family, or what everyone is talking about at work or school. Everyone from tweens to the elderly has some form of social media. According to Pew (2022), 35% of US teenagers say they are constantly on either YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, or Facebook.       I believe that social media use should be discussed, analyzed, and utilized in a digital citizenship curriculum for schools. Productive social media use can teach students about proper online communication, sharing opinions versus sharing facts, and wading through misinformation. However, we must also teach our students to step away from social media for their mental health. "Digital media done 'well' can become psychologically problematic for users. In fa...