Giulia Marazita - Reflection as a Way of Life

  - 10 Favourite Online Teaching Tools Used by Educators this Year Article Written By: Larry Ferlazzo Due to the pandemic, teachers and students were put into an environment where they were forced to be online more than they ever have before. Apart from Google and Zoom, there were many notable online resources that were great for the classroom and promoted student engagement:  Quizzizz: Free online learning game site that has already-made games about every topic.  Baamboozle: Free online gaming site. Students can select a question to answer and talk among themselves to determine the correct answer.  Quill: Free site where students can learn grammar in a non-painful way.  Math Learning Center: Virtual manipulative website  FlipGrid : Short videos of students' responses.  Peardeck : Responses from all students are immediately visible. Uses various tools (polls, drawing tools for matching, multiple choice, free response, fill in the blank). Students...

  - Online Learning Activities That Keep Students Motivated and Engaged  Online Learning Activities That Keep Students Motivated and Engaged  This article was inspired by the fact that some schools decided that their classes would remain online, whereas others would be adopting a hybrid model, including a blend of in-person and remote learning. It's important that teachers refine their lesson plans to include fun and engaging online activities.  The article considers activities that they believe would be beneficial to incorporate in the classroom:  Real-world case studies: Ask students to find real-life case studies, not generic ones! They get to research their own case study that they find most interesting. Online Debates: Debates force students to dig deeply into a topic and understand both points. Plus, they love the fact that they get to defend their side.  Whiteboard Teaching: Explain Everything Whiteboard   is an app that allows teach...

  - Digital Distractions: How Instructional Technology Can Help Article By: Clark Thomas It's no surprise that technology provides an outlet for endless distractions. Just in the last few months of teaching, I would find students playing games and chatting with each other on their Chromebooks. According to Thomas (2018), a recent study claimed that teachers are liable to ensure that technology in the classroom is being used for purposes related to study only. As technology is becoming more relevant in classrooms and classroom sizes are becoming larger, monitoring 25+ students Chromebooks at once can be difficult. The author discusses 4 strategies, with the help of instructional technology, to avoid these digital distractions. 1. Digital Note Taking: It is difficult to pay attention to more than one thing, especially when note taking or listening to instructions. It is likely that something will be missed. Tip: Install Distraction Free Mode for Google Docs to reduce distr...

- A Self Reflection: The new question. After looking back at all of the research that I have been doing, the scholarly articles I've read, the TedTalks I've watched, it was time to self reflect.      My original research question was: Is Technology in the classroom helping or hurting students? It is evident to me that I am still extremely interested in knowing the true answer to this question. However, as I continue to read through scholarly articles and articles, and watch TedTalks, I have noticed a trend. Most of the resources were saying the exact same thing. They would give reasons as to why technology is definitely beneficial in the classroom, however, they would also mention reasons why it hinders student learning. I have come to the realization that technology in classrooms is relatively new. There is not enough information or studies on the topic to come to an actual conclusion on whether technology helps or hurts our students.     Over the last few week...

- Use of Technology in Education Dr. Shirin Shafiei Ebrahimi begins by showing a video of what education could look like in the future. Although this would most likely be a reality decades away, I couldn't help but think to myself, "Whoa! That's so cool."  There are many ideas thrown out in this video without much explanation. However, I felt like it would be best to use this video for my blog because there's plenty to deconstruct!  The presenter talks about the benefits of technology, how cost factors in, and blended learning. She discusses that the aim of recent technology based education is personalized learning, the ability for all students to learn at their own pace. They could use the internet to learn about whatever they want, whenever they want. She talks about the benefits being:  Unlimited ways to use apps provided through technology Easily accessible Facilitates education Improve teaching and learning  Improves the sense of creativity  Makes you ...

  - Negative Effects of Technology:  Written by: Amanda Strom This study was written to analyze whether or not overuse of technology can lead to negative health effects and impair student learning (Strom, 2021). As mentioned in my previous post, my colleagues both immediately responded with the fact that technology in the classroom helps students. I thought I would look into why it hurts them to see if there's anything that contradicts their thoughts. It was interesting to see that the author discusses the fact that the review is concluded with the fact that students who are exposed to a high amount of screen time are more susceptible to experiencing health effects and learning deficits. The author also discusses downfalls of using technology in the class and suggests ways to better include technology in lessons and personal life. Throughout reading the study, I quickly realized that it was more-so about the overall health of the students. The studies made it clear that i...

- Colleagues Perspectives    I started to think to myself, I wonder what my colleagues think of this topic.  They had just as much exposure as me to students learning through technology. I figured, what better time to, for lack of a better term, interview them on their thoughts.  I will be asking all three of them the same question, "Do you think that technology in the classroom helps or hurts students?"  Nikki's Perspective When I asked Nikki the question, she didn't even think twice. She immediately responded with, "helps." I was taken back by the quick response. Naturally, I asked her why she thinks that technology helps students in the classroom. Nikki is currently taking courses to enhance her knowledge on special education. She taught grade 5/6 at the school I was at during my first placement. This school did not have a 1:1 Chromebook ratio, rather, there was a Chromebook cart that was shared. Here are her reasons for technology helping in the classro...