The examples below and this idea overall is hauntingly true. Anotther example is in the game Prodigy, which I feel like is the case in many other games, is that when you pick a name for your character, it lets you pick from a pre-determined list. Students with a name unique to their culture, or simply outside the "typical" names will not get to express their identity unfortunately. Lack of representation in edtech and issues with accessibility that disproportionately impact users of color is just as harmful as a lack of representation in lesson plans or assignments that disproportionately exclude and challenge students of color.

This is too true unfortunately. If I didn't take this class, I would see technology as solely good minus inevitable factors such as distraction during class. I would have never looked deeper into privacy issues. For example, so many websites that we have students use makes them create an account, which can could have a clause in the privacy policy that keeps data that shouldn't be kept, and I would never know about it before this class because I wouldn't have gotten any training on it. Similar to accessibility issues, I thought Kahoot was accessible to everyone, but I looked at someone's presentation on it and found issues. We need to learn about the issues with technology and how to evaluate it in order to use it on our classrooms faithfully.

I think this idea needs to be revolutionalized and be spread. While worksheets, standardized testing, same narrow curriculum might make things efficient, it makes some students settle down lower then where they are and get bored, and makes other students feel as if they do not fit and are delayed. While it's so hard to change a whole system, providing options for representation and expression and engagement, even in little increments, will make students feel that they aren't just a number who needs to reach an educational milestone at one particular date.

To me, this is the difference between college and high school. In high school, we always got rubrics breaking down what we needed to do, peer review time, only one option for assignments... etc. In college, they give us vague guidelines sometimes and we have to figure out what works best, and there's sometimes multiple options of assignments or multiple ways of doing an assignment. I experience more creative projects in college (especially as an education major) that have let me make my own guidelines and guide my own learning. Learning about choice boards to learn about something rather than a worksheet really fascinated me and is something I will use in the future to engage my students.

This also reminds me of UDL - universal design for learning, which means designs are made to be accessible for everyone and to help everyone and anyone. One example of both of these concepts is automatic doors, which help individuals with motor disabilities but also individuals who are carrying a lot of stuff and don't have a free hand. Transcripts for videos such as ted talks help individuals with auditory impairments, but also individuals who are in a public space without headphones but still want to access the content.

UMass needs this! I saw a TikTok account of a Umass student going around and pointing out inaccessible classrooms that took her 2x as long to get there and where she might have to crawl. Even buildings that claimed to be accessible still had ramps with poor friction or that were hard to get up on to. This should be done at every school because many workers will not know what students need access to, so students should be able to point them out theirselves to help make progress. If a student fails because the classroom wasn't accessible, then the school failed them.

These tools can show what students already know, but can also track their learning during instruction. Clickers/ surveys can be put at the beginning, middle, and end or even after every slide to guage pre-knowledge, questions while learning, and final understandings! I used fast poll in my class the other day and mentimeter as well to insert questions. Peardeck and nearpod are other great options.

This question is really important, especially when working with students. What I've learned to get the answer to this question is to look for ads and the use of cookies, Also the PRIVACY POLICY to look at what they're sharing and the about page to look for sketchy intentions.

You can use detect to help students become a better digital citizen! I remember in elementary school, we had to learn about preventing cyberbullying and never giving out our passwords. Now, there are so many digital lesson plans that help with this, google And commonsense media have some great ones. Additionally, there is a website but I forget what it's called that lets you guess if a source/article is fake or not, which lets students practice whether they should trust the internet or not.

I love bloom's taxonomy and am familiar with it because of other education classes. What's really cool is I can connect it to 390D perfectly - especially with the create level of bloom's. There are so many tools you can use to create - Canva, comic creators, padlet, etc.

Does monetizing our data only mean using it to personalize ads? Or is their other ways they can make money off our data? Could there be a world in which you can buy someone else's data and see not only their interests but their location and use it to stalk them? Are we that far off from this or is it the same idea basically except with companies...

Getting into the legalities of sharing data, let's say a prosecutor or defense attorney used somones location data they got from an ISP that shows their phone pinged them at the scene of the crime or something along those lines. Would evidence from their phone/internet data be legally used or no because it's an invasion of privacy? I'd be interested to know if this has ever happened before in a case or the details as to whether or not ISPS can use your data for more than personalizing ads.

See, I think that an argument can be made against this. While I a million percent agree that nothing can replace the relationship and support a human teacher can give a student which helps and is a giving tree to their learning, AI is growing stronger in terms of pedagogy. I think it's really hard for young children, but there are many instances in high school where students end up teaching themselves some of the subject matter through platforms such as Khan Academy. While some might call Khan Academy asynchronous learning because it's humans making the questions and videos, there's some AI that goes on in the review. This reminds me of any review system that uses an AI algorithm to detect students weak spots by how they answer questions and gives them review questions to target these weak spots. One might say that the intricacies of this tactic (knowing how to target students weaknesses based on their answers) is something only a teacher could do based on how they know their students, AI is becoming very good at this. Additionally, who's to say that AI in the future can't come up with questions, which is something that I've seen teachers use ChatGPT to do.

I think that this should be a big part of teacher preparation, and that AI in the classroom and students' privacy when using technology should be a required subject for every schools' professional development sessions. In another class, I learned about the school to prison pipeline, and how it's suspected that the government uses children of colors test scores to predict how many jail cells they need to build. While this is based off of written test scores and not technology, if they began to use tracking of students data from technology used in the classroom, this is just one example of how students data can be used. What if a platform like iMovie where many students use voice bites has an ambiguous statement in their privacy policy about their use of voice bites?

The second I read this, I thought about the popular platform TikTok, which I use everyday and never question my privacy settings. I've heard for a while that they're giving away my data, specifically to China, so I wanted to check it out. Here's the website I used: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/08/tiktok-shares-your-data-more-than-any-other-social-media-app-study.html I found out that TikTok has 14 network contacts, with 13 of those being from 3rd parties and that 3rd party tracking happened even when users didn't opt in to it. We also can't see what data is shared with these contacts or how it's used. I learned that some of what it allegedly tracks is the videos we watch, how long we spend watching them, location, and search history to create inferred demographics like age and gender. This makes so much sense as to why my TikTok algorithm is perfectly catered to my interests, and I've recently found that if I search something for a few minutes, it'll come up more in my feed. When it comes to the China news, TikTok's privacy policy states that it can share data with Chinese parent company but does its best to safeguard against it but is vague about it, which makes me wonder how much they really are sharing. Overall, it's very interesting to see how many companies will still look at your data even if you don't allow it.

While I know that companies do this on purpose to gain rights to your information and for that reason any attempt to simplify these agreements will have pushback, I really think their needs to be an extension, tool, or platform that will put these forms into simpler terms. This is a prime example of the U in Pour (understandable), and it reminds me of how error signs need to tell us what's wrong in simple language so we can fix it just as these terms of agreement should be in understandable words and syntax so we know what we're signing.

This section relates so prominently to what it's like to introduce technology to children in classrooms. "I can't sign in" "I forgot my password" "I clicked out of it" "What button do I Press again" are things a teacher might hear a million times in the span of 5 minutes and it takes away from group instruction time. Error prevention is necessary so students and teachers cognitive load shouldn't get in the way of what the technology is meant to be/it's purpose in the classroom. The "get help" made me think about how there should be a way to have students screens connected to the teachers, so when the teacher is going over it and students are having issues, they can press a button that says I need help rather than blurting out, and the teacher can see this and come help when they have a chance.

What comes to mind when I think about built-in keyboard shortcuts is Google sheets! I took a stats class in high school and was mesmerized by all of the hacks and keyboard combos you can use to make using and organizing data more convienent and accessible. I've forgotten most of them, but whenever I need to make a spreadsheet, I'll call up my friends in Data science or Isenberg and they can do in 10 minutes what it took me 30 to do. it is relatively easy to learn these tools too, I just forgot since high school.

When reading this, the platform that first came to mind was google. I think they really really have dominated this feature over all of their platforms. Google drive lets you share folders, and google docs/slides etc makes it so easy to collaborate with group partners, peer review, and for teachers to give feedback. In Gmail, Google+ is a feature I used to use 24/7 to communicate with my friends because I had a Samsung, and it was little text pop-ups you could do with anyone with a gmail account/profile which creates a community! Notes made in google keep can be shared with people for dual reminders. Sharing any work you do on google is so so easy to do and can be done in many ways.

This issue I feel has become much more prominent in edtech recently. Many platforms are making features that were once unlimited and free to use now part of a payment plan. The 2 biggest examples are Quizlet and Kahoot. Flashcards is now the only Quizlet feature that users can use unlimited times with a basic account. Moreso, on Kahoot, the basic free plan now only lets you host games with up to 10 students, which will make it so the average classroom can't use it anymore. While there are many similar websites/platforms for interactive games and/or studying, it's sad to see these nostalgic companies caving into payment plans. Additionally, college students end up paying lots of money for platforms to do homework and practice problems on, which can be a lot for first-gen students or students paying their own tuition. Yes, they might be able to find a way to get it funded, but its an inconvenience that harms students disproportionately.

This is incredibly important. Technology today plays such an important role in access to information, communication, and the workforce/job field. Being unable to use a platform can lead to missing out on news. connections, and jobs. If a website such as gmail had poor user interface such as no way to make the text bigger or organize the mass of emails, individuals with a visual impairment or with anxiety might stay away from the platform and miss important emails. Being able to type, navigate a screen, scroll, and more is really necessary for almost any high-paying job and many individuals cannot do this, so if a platform doesn't work with accommodations for mouses, keyboards, audio and visual accessibility, not only is it unjust for those individuals, but the workforce misses out on many individuals with potential. Not being able to use job search platforms if they are not accessible is a huge disadvantage.

I know Apple AssistaveTouch is mentioned below but I wanted to highlight more examples of Apple (especially on the iPhone) features that help make it more Operable. The home button option is a little unnatural but works great for people who are uncomfortable with having no home button, for those with a broken home button, or for individuals who cannot press the home button and its' easier for them to slide. I thought that the VoiceOver option was really hard to use, but if you put the time and effort into learning it that it'd be a great tool for those with visual impairments. I love that there's an option to reduce the motion of the user interface for individuals who might get overstimulated or uncomfortable with too much movement. Next is their option to change the text size, increase the contrast, and decrease the intensity of bright colors, all of which can help older individuals or individuals with visual impairments access and operate better. Assistave touch helps individuals who might have trouble with the touch screen, and it can look for compatibility with hearing aids to improve audio quality. There are more, but these are some of the key ones, and some of these might fall better under the perceivable section, but I feel that they interlay with each other.

The different speeds parts really stuck out to me. This in a reader is really important for students behind reading level, learning new words, and with learning disabilities. However, it's also really important in videos. Normally when I watch a YouTube video about science, it's so confusing that I slow the playback speed down to give me more time to process it, and when I am in a rush or the talker speaks too slowly for me, I will speed it up. It makes videos more accessible and convienent.

An example of UDL that I think should be as normalized as possible is transcripts for all videos. This would help individuals with audio impairments such as being hard of hearing have access to am alternate spreading of information that suits them best. It provides 2 options that people can pick whichever they prefer. This is also universal for individuals without a disability who are in spaces where they cannot listen to a video, or are in a rush and can read faster. I normally prefer to read videos rather than watch because it is more efficient.

This is so so important in a classroom, especially early childhood/elementary age because having been in a classroom before, their engagement decreases the second a teacher takes time to reload a page or reconnect to wifi and the more time a teacher takes to have to introduce technology will reduce the learning time. Every student will raise their hand saying they can't find it, they can't log in, they forgot their password, they weren't listening to the instructions, etc. When only only one teacher is in the room, it provides a hard task. User instruction is so important, as is students having easy access. Multimodal instruction is also really helpful in this situation because it reduces the need for teachers to add extra differentiation.

I cannot emphasize enough how Canva is one of the best digital tools and apps for everything the user experience. When they say that students/kids will love using something and use it to learn rather than spend time learning the tool itself, it is really true. Canva is so easy to use/so appealing and simple that even when I'm using it for an academic reason, I have a good time using it and am always drawn to it. I always recommend it to people and they learn it so easily and then keep using it. It's part of my schoolwork when I make lesson plans and my personal life when I make decorations for my room or lock screens. The templates they provide make it so accessible and easy to use. Additionally, I love how easy it is to share/export - they have a clear drop own button for different options such as PDF vs JPEG. There is a paid option which can be a pain when looking at elements to use but I have heard teachers get it for free which is an awesome feature.

I really like this idea that everyone is involved in a PLN space even if it's just for spectating or commenting. A YouTube video or a TikTok video has content to it, but the comments open up a whole new world of perspectives and wouldn't gain attention unless people like and share the video. When you comment your experience and thoughts, it adds new light to the content and turns it from just a resource to a space and network. I don't just watch a TikTok for the video itself, but half of what I get from it is people in the comments agreeing/disagreeing and adding for example how this activity worked out in their own classroom.

This is something that I worry about as a future teacher - feeling like I have to come up with lesson plans, manage a classroom with my own ideas, bottle up all situations and make decisions all on my own. However, after volunteering in a classroom and seeing how all teachers from a grade/classroom neighbors really can work together and taking this class has made me realize how social media and collaborating really can help. Having a mentor teacher is one of the biggest parts of my personal learning network. The other biggest part of my main personal leaning network is teacher Tok. I have over 200 videos saved of teacher talking about different lesson plans, activities, classroom management strategies, experiences, and more. These make me feel not so alone in my journey into this career path and that I will always have people and the internet to lean on to help me plan activities/lessons and strategize ways to differentiate and deal with student behavior.

I think this is a great acronym to help teach students about digital citizenship and safety. It's been great that this class has showed me links to lesson plans on this and websites to practice it, but I think it's great to have an acronym for students to remember and they can refer to all the time. I remember that I used so so many different websites K-12 for research and didn't think to look if the site seemed sketchy or not. I remember in high school seeing an add for a free sustainable straw if I paid shipping and put my card details in and never getting the straw in the mail. After a few months, I re-visited the website and was shocked that I never realized it was a scam. I remember briefly learning about digital safety but I don't remember having an acronym and I think it would have helped me realize the website I found was a scam.

I'm so excited to find this out - I am super tired of doing a google search about something specific and an un-curated list of websites comes up missing the details I need.

I strongly agree with this. Looking at the lists and websites full of tools given in this class, I am already feeling overwhelmed because there is so much of it. It is all focused on different subjects/grade levels and so much of it requires registering for an account and this gets tough to organize. Privacy is also a real concern when it comes to student data and teachers do not have the time to read through every tool's privacy policy and so many tools do the same thing so it has become hard to decide which one will work the best/ has the best intentions and is safest to use.

I think that learning needs to happen on both a formal and an informal level. For instance, to apply this distinction to this class, formal learning about digital tools would be the professor picking pre-determined tools and showing us how to use them. Informal learning/self-directed learning would be giving lists/sites of tools we can choose to explore. I think there needs to be a bit of both - teaching us some key, most popular/useful tools and then letting us explore ones we are interested in on our own. For me, I like that this class lets us pick from thousands of different tools because I am looking for tools specifically for the elementary level so a tool like an online graphing calculator would not benefit me or interest me. This makes sure that students/users get to review important basics and then focus on what will benefit them/interests them.