Hey everyone! This is my second to last edtech blog post for the semester. Just to update everyone on the current situation, Covid-19 is actively spreading and all of our classes have been moved online for the remainder of the semester. This is a difficult time for everyone and I hope everyone is doing their part to work towards social distancing and slowing the spread of Covid-19. 

During today’s class, we had the opportunity to use “Zoom”, a video program that allows group video conference calls. Overall, I thought the program was super cool and a great resource to use. However, I do have some concerns regarding the program. I personally had a challenge where my computer kept cutting off the call. Fortunately, I had my classmate Sarah here and we were able to use her computer to tune into class. The topic of today was listening to our classmates’ group edtech inquiry presentations. In these presentations, people presented their findings on different technological programs that can be used in the classroom. Some of the topics include the following: Kahoot, SMARTboards, and a variety of others. One group discussed the topic of screen time and whether it is beneficial or detrimental to your child’s well-being. There are a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to screen time, but ultimately, everything with reason is acceptable.

We concluded the class by exploring the use of the program “Twine”, a digital program that allows students to create interactive stories. This program is an introduction to basic coding while students combine language arts skills by writing their own stories. I definitely can see this being a fun tool for teachers to implement in the classroom. I would like to spend more time exploring the sight and discovering all the cool features it has. One interesting thing I learned was that Twine was the program used to create the popular story of “Bandersnatch” from the hit Netflix series “Black Mirror“.

– Ms. G 🙂