Blog Post 4

     At the tech sandbox, I learned about how many new developments in technology are being used to enhance early education. If I were to use any of these tools, I would definitely investigate the large, tablet-like board that enables multiple students to complete interactive educational tasks. I think that this would be perfect for young children to have fun while they learn new ideas, including math, geometry, and science. Additionally, because the students can work on the board at the same time, they can have the opportunity to learn from each other and become independent learners. I would include time to be on these boards at the beginning of class, so that students can get exposed to new material in a fun, investigative way. 

    I have really enjoyed using Pinterest and Instagram to see fun tips and tricks from teachers who are sharing what works best for them and their students. I think there are so many different ways to go about teaching, and having an online personal learning network is a super easy way to get a ton of ideas really quickly. I mainly interact with English teachers, who often share the different ways they explain writing and reading concepts to their students. This can be tricky, especially when teaching complicated ideas in books and poetry. This will be helpful for me in the future if I get the opportunity to teach English, which truly has so many perspectives and interpretations that are crucial to teach to every student. 

    I went to a pretty digitally rich high school. Ours was the biggest in the area, so we often got a lot of funding for technology. I think this has been really helpful for me in college so far, considering I have learned a lot about writing online, downloading files, emailing, uploading, etc. These early experiences enabled me to also learn about different technologies and figure them out mostly independently. What I do wish, however, is that we could've had more experience using the actual technologies that almost all Universities do. I would've enjoyed practice with Canvas and Microsoft applications; however, all our school used were Google services.