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About Me


My name is Laura and I'm currently a student at the University of Montevallo. I am getting my EdS degree in Instructional Technology. I am a library media specialist at an elementary school. I have been an LMS for sixteen years, and I believe technology would be a good fit for the latter part of my career. When I'm not working,  I love to try new restaurants with my friends, read, and play with my dog. 

Popular posts from this blog

Click this! (ED 629 Blog #1)

      If you are online or have been online for the past five to seven years, you have read a clickbait article or link. You probably have even clicked on the link. "You'll never believe what happens next..." "10 Things You Didn't Know About..." These are examples of clickbait article titles that you might see on different social media platforms. Clickbait is used for a variety of reasons, but some are nefarious. Businesses or news platforms use clickbait so that people can click the link to bring traffic to their site. Other times, it can lead to a scam. Many people know they should be cautious when clicking these links, but do anyway for a variety of reasons.     The Veritasium video below makes the point that most people hate clickbait, yet it is everywhere. And on top of that, no one truly agrees on the definition of clickbait.
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Student mental health & social media

     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...
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Infographic Literacy (ED 629 Blog #2)

Literacy has always been an important milestone for a child to reach. Learning to read and comprehend text is the educational backbone that all students need. In today's visual and textual world, students must be literate in both to navigate and contribute to society. Text on pictures has been around for centuries. Infographics are everywhere (social media, news, etc), helping to disseminate information to the masses. There is a need for students (and really, everyone) to have infographic literacy.  The infographic below is a fun way to display information about infographics.  (Cash, n.d.) An infographic is a way to visualize a set of data. Infographics go back to cave drawings and have been a way to show information for thousands of years (Nivethika 2022).  Everyone sees them on the news to discuss climate change or political polls. People see them on social media when someone wants to share information about something that might not be commonly discussed (i.e., a d...
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