Huckabaa's UM ED 529 Digital Writing Blog

 Just one of the ten EdTech Essentials I discovered in this book - Virtual Field Trips and Virtual Reality.    One of the "truths" for 2-truths and 1-lie that I do with my students at the beginning of the school year is that I have never been out of the United States. This amazes some of my students, especially my English Learners who come from other countries. I have always wanted to travel, just never had or taken the opportunity to do so.  I started to hear about Virtual Field Trips (VFT) and Virtual Reality (VR) this past year when some of the students at my school went on a Virtual Field trip to the White House in Social Studies and another group were given the opportunity to use the AR (augmented reality) goggles in their Career Technology classroom. My school is considered Title I, which means over 70% of our students receive free or reduced lunch. So, when it comes time for Field Trips or other paid activities, if students don't have the money to go, we try t...

Should you or should you not use social media in the middle school classroom? When I think of social media, I think of Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, Snapchat, etc. I was not thinking of platforms such as Google, YouTube, and Pinterest. When I watched the YouTube video below, it reminded me of an opportunity that my Science counterpart and her students were able to participate in this past year. She and the students had a chance to talk to an astronaut via Google Meet. They were able to listen and ask questions. She said it was something none of them will ever forget. My generation did not have social media growing up. In fact, I didn't get my first desktop computer until my Junior year in high school and I didn't get a cell phone until college. So, while for kids today social media is a necessity and daily part of their lives, I have had to work my way into it.  In my personal opinion, it is hard to use the traditional types of social media due to the security and privacy se...

Have you ever tried to find a different way to present material in a math classroom  other than direct instruction? For some students, they struggle with explaining how they worked out a problem by working out the steps. Often times, if you ask them, they can tell you how they got through the process but couldn't connect those thoughts to write them on paper. One of the suggestions that I have heard in several Professional Developments was to have students record a video of their explanation. I wasn't sure how I to make that work but throughout this graduate level course, I am researching and finding ways that I think I can make it happen for my students. It helps now that my students have 1-1 technology access.  You can have students work a problem out while speaking it out loud in the video. Or maybe if you are short on time, maybe you can have students record lessons that they have created to teach others in the class.  According to Differentiated Teaching (2021), "The...

Infographics using Adobe As a teacher in a school district that requires us to use the Google platform, I only thought of using Adobe for opening PDF files.  However, after reading for this blog, I found that I can also use the Adobe platform to have students' complete assignments using Adobe. Adobe Creative Cloud is the overall platform that encompasses all of the Adobe products. " These results are driven, in part, by the increased engagement students feel due to the creativity that Adobe products foster." (Huls, 2022, para. 4) Some of the apps under the Adobe Creative Cloud Platform are: Photoshop - At some point in a student's education, they will have used photoshop. Normally, it is to edit pictures for their Social Media and not necessarily for a school project as such. InDesign - This program would be great for a school newspaper or for a teacher who wanted to create a poetry booklet from her class.  Illustrator - This program may not necessarily be used in the...

  Algorithms in Technology Algorithms are the step-by-step processes of how things happen and are a part of everything we do in our life. Algorithms can be simple or complex.  For this particular blog, I will be focusing on how algorithms affect your technology.   Have you ever wondered how particular ads pop up   on your computer or Social Media? According to Lawrence (2022), "We don't need to know the exact formula - ... - but we can keep an eye on inputs and outputs, make assumptions, run tests, and optimize our content in such a way that we might achieve realistic goals" (pg. 82). When you search items on websites such as vacations sites, Amazon, looking for teacher ideas for the classroom, or following a particular person/group on Social Media, it sends an algorithm to companies that you are interested in a particular item and chooses ads that fit your particular interest. "An algorithm determines what is displayed to you: a process or a set of rules that sorts ...