I am so happy to be an education major at this point in time. There is finally a realization of all the things that have gone wrong in education in the past. It was always a "one-size-fits-all scenario and I am glad that there is light being shed on it so we can make the change that we need to in the education system.

It is interesting to see that digital play was seen as essential to learning but only in mostly wealthy schools with the majority of the school being white.

I have now after taking this class. I never really thought about it before as an essential but more something that has always been present in my educational experience.

I really like seeing this explicitly stated. You want all your students to be actively involved in their learning, design needs to be inclusive for everyone!

This to me sounds absolutely terrifying. I've heard of things like lockdown browsers that college professors put in place during exams and even that makes me nervous. I feel like this makes students stressed about learning rather than actually wanting to engage in the tools presented.

I think this is such a big thing to consider. I never truly thought about what the actual relationship is with students and technology. It is so important to have a students perspective when it comes to technology because they will be the ones using the tools!

For our group project this week, we decided to look into Kahoot and see if it was a safe game for teachers to use with their students in the classroom. As we were familiar with using this tool growing up in the classroom, we wanted to know if it was actually safe. Thankfully, when using incognito mode on google chrome, it makes this tool a lot safer to use as it can take a students information and IP address without incognito mode on.

This has always stressed me out. Every time I use a new tool or make an account for anything, I feel like I will never have access to my own privacy. There is always the joke, "The government is always watching!" (Yes I say this all the time), but with this being the case with all online tools, it is seemingly true. This is important to notice when working with children as you don't want their privacy to be shared with the internet as it is not safe for them whatsoever.

I think that these three ideas of design are so important in a classroom setting or even in a work setting. These principles value equity and accessibility which is necessary to make students feel welcomed, safe and valued in the academic community. With providing multiple routes of access, understanding content and freedom of choice, this will make students more eager to learn overall.

I have found myself in the past thinking "work smarter not harder" a lot of the time. If a tool I need to use isn't very user friendly, I found myself relying on my friends or peers for help, rather than really trying to accomplish the task. More recently, especially since I started my substitute position, I found that I have learned to work hard to figure out the problem on my own, rather than always relying on someone else. At the end of the day, it is important that online tools are user friendly, but it is also good to learn to navigate ones that may not be so user-friendly.

I really like the concept of having a rubric for this. As teachers use rubrics for grading and many other things, it would be a familiar concept to them, making it much easier for teachers to work with.

All of this information on this page is extremely helpful when searching online. It can be really frustrating knowing that the answers you need are online but you can't figure out how to find them. I remember using this tactic to help me with research papers that needed official websites for the works cited and not just yahoo or wiki answer pages. I have learned a few of these tips over the years in schools but I know this will be extremely beneficial to me when I start teaching full tim or when I go back to my substitute position.