Thursday, February 27, 2020

Blog Journal 6 - Teacher Pages, My Future Tech Use, and Tech Sandbox

Welcome back!

When looking for teacher pages, my first instinct was obviously to go to my high school's website. That's how I get in touch with my old teachers, after all, so I figured if there were any teacher pages they would be there. This idea of teacher pages seems pretty widespread too, so I figured my school would have them- so imagine my surprise when the only thing available about the teachers was an email address. I even went back and checked my middle school, and then even my elementary school- nothing. I guess teachers pages haven't caught on out in Baker yet. With that failure, I went on over to the page of the school I pass every time I drive on out here to Tallahassee- Leon High, grades 9 through 12. I immediately found teacher pages, right there at the top of the page. The pages were laid out in alphabetical order, and it was easy to find what you were looking for, but the pages I looked at weren't all that detailed. For example, some "about me" pages were about a sentence or two in length- it really didn't tell you anything. If you feel inclined to take a look at Leon High's teachers for yourself, you can locate the teacher pages here.

Now, as a future educator, I need to put some thought toward how I'll use technology in the future. I think what I'd plan on using a lot honestly might just be Diigo. Getting access to communities that could help me find useful resources to plan my lessons sounds absolutely amazing. What I'd also want is some sort of notepad extension or something like that to help me keep track of resources for when I'm planning lessons or doing other things. Really, I think just whatever helps me stay organized would be great.

Speaking of technology, the visit to the Tech Sandbox was great. It exposed me to technology that, previously, I'd only ever really seen on Youtube- for example, 3D printing. What really amazed me though was virtual reality. Now, when I was in high school, I was convinced I wanted to be an architect (having to take calculus quickly changed my mind on that), and as such I toured SCAD- the Savannah College of Art and Design. Along the tour they gave us these nice little cardboard cutout VR goggles to use- I still have them laying around somewhere at home. Even getting those little rinky-dink cardboard goggles was great for showing me just how cool virtual reality could be. Over time, though, I kind of started to associate virtual reality programs with poor graphical quality- probably because my only exposure to it was phone apps. Getting to see modern VR programs and equipment in the Tech Sandbox quickly changed my conceptions. Honestly, a lot of the stuff they had running in there looked even more realistic than a good number of modern, triple-A video game titles. With that in mind, I think VR would be a great thing to implement in classrooms-maybe not an English class, but it would definitely be a great addition to a science class, a history class, or maybe even a logistics or automotive class. Virtual reality technology opens the door for so many different experiences that we just can't get in a classroom today.

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