I agree with this. Though logistically technology is not needed for successful education, as it has been done without technology for centuries, it makes the most sense to use it within the classroom, as it has become the interface that society is the most comfortable using as times have changed and become more modernized. The use of technology in the classroom has almost become innevitable.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. The accommodations should be built into the learning environment so that students who need accommodations do not have to go further out of their way to advocate for themselves. It creates an accessible space for everyone and makes learning easier for all members of the learning environment.

this is extremely important, as providing a limited representation of people, places, cultures, and content can provide students with tunnel vision and biased views and opinions about the world and certain topics relating to society.

being flexible is something extremely important yet very difficult to accomplish, especially when meeting the needs of students, teachers, and administrators with a wide range of needs. It is important to consider all of the possible angles and try to design something that can be done in multiple different ways to achieve that same outcome.

this is an interesting take. I have heard about something kind of similar called "flipped learning" where students can watch the lessons at home using their technological tools, and then complete assignments in class so that the instructor is there with them to help!

this is a question I think about a lot, as education has come a very long way. Last year, I had a professor who refused to use technology to teach and would only allow us to take handwritten notes. He also required us to put all of our devices away during class. There were some pros and cons, as not having my devices out definitely allowed me to focus more on the lecture without any other distractions. But it was very frustrating because I had been taking digital notes for years, and it was difficult for me to stay organized. I think it is good to have a balance within the classroom so that students have well-rounded skills and can choose what works best for them.

this was super cool to read about, and see a detailed break down with examples of each of the 7 requirements

I just learned about this in my psychology in education class, it is very interesting to see my two classes have some overlap and see how the same theories can be applied to multiple courses.

yes, and these companies likely have an overview of everything we are searching or using, as they provide us access to the internet and allow us to communicate with others.

Yes. I have always wondered this, and why there are no restrictions. I think a lot of people feel like they aren't searching anything bad or problematic, similarly to how usually people are not having extremely private conversations over the phone. however, this argument shouldn't matter, because there are those few exceptions that really make it count, For example, in terms of the recent abortion laws, one may be doing research regarding the topic, whether or not they are even getting an abortion, and this could potentially result in them being questioned. How can we do basic research without our data being used against us?

i think this is a great rule of thumb. I think often times students are forced to use certain AI tools that they may not consent to using, especially in high school and college. A lot of the examples I can think of are "anti-cheating" proctoring softwares. I remember when I was taking the AP exams in my bedroom due to covid, I had to scan my entire bedroom so they could see that no one else was in the room with me or any other "cheating" devices. I have taken exams where my computer screen tabs are monitored. These technologies are incredibly invasive of privacy, but I was forced to use them at for the "gain" of my education.

this is a great point. I remember when I was in middle school , personal devices were not allowed unless it was a true emergency. Once I got to high school, I remember that the school wifi would ban access to certain apps or websites, and since the school was a dead zone for cell service, students were very limited to their internet access. However, this caused many students to download VPNs to their devices to bypass the set wifi restrictions, which then became more illegal. I remember being infuriated with these rules, but now I understand that they truly were trying to protect us.

this is a good and interesting point. Though AI has a lot of potentials and is great for accommodating students' learning needs at an individual level, nothing compares to the benefits of having hands-on instruction from a teacher. I think that we truly learned the effects of not having teachers in person through the pandemic, as a lot of students struggled immensely; it is just not the same.

This is definitely becoming more concerning as technology progresses. Especially with tools like chatGPT or an Amazon Alexa, the information that we can either forge or have collected about us is overwhelming.

Is there any reason why the age is set at 13 and not 18?

It is hard to know where to draw the line of how much information can be collected from minors. This is especially tricky when dealing with social issues outside of school hours, and can lead to a lot of invasion of privacy of students and their families.

This has happened to me many times. At first, it was a little bit spooky and I would hear people making jokes about how their phone is "listening". But that actually was the reality. I don't even need to vocalize something that I am thinking about for all of the apps I am using to know the content I want to see, when, where, and how. I often think about this in terms of tik tok's famous "for you" page, which is a constant stream of video content specifically tailored "for you" to watch. It truly is scary, and also makes me think about how much bias and closed-mindedness that can create. Though some may think that it opens up the mind to new forms of media that they may not "otherwise watch" because they are being fed the media without having to choose what they're watching, it can actually create more bias. For example, if we think about political opinions, you are likely only being fed information in favor of your party and against your opposing party. But we are never being shown the media in support of the opposing party, or their versions of negativity about the party we associate with. It further deepens the support for our own party and the lack thereof of the opposing party. This argument can go for anything, as we fall deeper into the rabbit holes of our interests.

It should not be this way. Just because something is free, should not automatically mean having the risk of data collection, but unfortunately, that's what it has come to. Many people cannot afford to pay for things, and most tools and apps do not come with an option to purchase their tool. A few that I can think of are instragram, twitter, facebook, tik tok, and snapchat. People use these daily as their main source of communication with friends, which can be very dangerous if one is unaware of their digital footprint. Many people skip past the terms of service because they are painfully long to fully read and comprehend, ad they contain a lot of legal jargon.

All of these were very common, and seemingly everyday scenarios or events. It is shocking how many common sites share, track, and use our data in ways that we don't even know. But its also super difficult to avoid it in the days of growing and daily use of technology.

this was a very big issue during the pandemic when schooling was remote. I have very poor wifi at my parent's house, and it was very frustrating to use some tools my professors were asking me to use for graded homework when it kept crashing. I would spend hours and hours trying to restart the assignments.

this is a great thing to keep in mind, and I am sure that a lot of companies had to change their interfaces to fit into mobile phone and tablet-sized screens for the best possible user experience. I know how hard it can be to try to navigate a computer-designed program on a tinier mobile screen: a lot of zooming in and out and scrolling left to right to see the full picture.

I have had experiences in the past with some tools not working on specific browsers. It can be frustrating, especially in a public school, when only certain browsers are offered on the school computers and the programs keep crashing

this is what I love the most about Google drive! I have all of my files uploaded to a virtual space rather than downloaded on my hard drive on my computer. I can easily share documents and other forms of media by simply typing in their email. Google Drive also allows me to convert my media into different forms and export it to others

This is definitely true of my experiences. There have been so many times when I have used a technological tool and have been overwhelmed and lost in all of the possibilities that I don't even know where to start. Like Microsoft excel for example when creating graphs. A simpler tool is chartle.com

yes, I have used this before and remember really enjoying it!

Many times, when I am prompted with a new technological tool, I do not read the user introduction. I am not sure why I do this, but I assume that many other students do this as well. I think it is because we think we know how to use the tool, and then find ourselves having questions that would have been answered in the instruction. But, I have found that I pay more attention to the user instruction when it is a required screen tutorial that I cannot exit out of. This allows me to interact with the program so that I can truly understand how to use it. When the program only provides a long, non-stimulating text-filled user instruction, I can easily lose interest and just try to figure it out on my own.

This is a familiar experience I think many students have had. And when this happens, oftentimes the teacher is unable to assist everyone because they are not an expert in this tool themselves. Each student is also probably experiencing a different issue.

Yes! It definitely opened my mind up to more technological needs for students with different learning styles and abilities. I am now more aware of some criteria to keep in mind when searching for tools to use within educational environments, or even daily life tasks.

I think repetition would also be great to include for memory strengthening!

this is especially important for younger educational settings. students at this age are learning a lot of new vocabulary, numbers, concepts, and navigation skills. it is important to make products understandable to all minds.

I had never thought of this before. I wonder if there is a way to turn down the sensitivity on certain devices so that people with loss of motor functioning skills can use these technology tools as well.

I have never heard of this before. I will keep this in mind when searching for tools with the universal design!

this is very important to note, and researching the tools beforehand will be beneficial to your own and your student's learning environment without having to make tweaks to the tools being provided. Finding/tweaking something that works for everyone before presenting it would be most helpful!

this is a great idea! students do not need to be spoon-fed their ways of learning and are often capable of creating their own learning paths based on their needs. The important thing is to provide the correct resources and materials that they need to be successful in their educational journey.

if the universal design is possible, why design something purposely not universal? engineering has become so cutting edge, yet the same designs from the past decades are used and do not encompass universal design at all.

this is extremely important, Every human being deserves access to equal information and learning opportunities.

To deal with the captioning issue, make sure to check the captions beforehand. If there are no captions offered, first try to find another video that encompasses the same topics. If you are unable to find one, you can type up a transcript of the video and send it to your students to read along with the video. Also, make sure to plan ahead so that your audio will be heard. Bring a Bluetooth speaker or another forms of amplification along with you so that it doesn't happen.

This is a very real and relatable issue that I have had many of my teachers, professors, and peers experience. It is a huge letdown and an unfortunate experience.

there have been many times that I have used homework or exam software that is extremely specific with its answer qualifications. Wiley plus, Achieve, and OWL are a few that I have used. These programs are extremely frustrating to use and often require students to do their difficult and long homework problems again and again just to find out they had a tiny typo in their answer response. It also can result in significant point reduction on their assignments for silly mistakes.

A much broader range of skills is needed to create an effective technological tool or app than one may think. In addition to needing the proper coding skills to create the software, graphic designers, educators, and psychologists are often also needed to create a tool with a pleasurable user experience for a digital tool or app.

this was something crucial to consider during online learning experiences, and I think a lot of my professors failed to do this. A lot of the time it was lecturing, posting lecture slides, and giving us online exams. For discussion-based classes, my professors would have us post on discussion boards instead of actually discussing with our peers during class. I think it is definitely the little things that make learning the most effective. but it can be hard to be creative when teaching has flipped upside down.

This is something that is very important to factor in and that I think most people would forget to consider. A tool may be great when used one on one, but the tool also needs to be effective when actively using it to teach in the classroom. This may take a few trial and error sessions before truly being able to assess its effectiveness in the classroom.

I think this is great! When tools provide general structure but aren't super specific, I think it makes it multifaceted and adaptive to teachers' specific needs and criteria, and also provides some guidelines so that there are some general rules to follow.

This is a great point and something that I think about a lot. Part of the reason why we are taking this course is so that when we get into the real world of teaching, we are not confused when it comes to using technology in our teaching practices. The number of times that I have had a teacher or professor who was incompetent in their use of technology with their teaching was too many to count. Often times they would avoid using the tech completely, which would limit students learning in a time where tech is almost necessary for learning, or they would rely on their TAs to assist students with any technological problems. Teachers need to be able to learn with the times of tech and adapt to students' ways of learning so that each student gets the most out of their education.

this is surprisingly more important than I would think at first. There have been countless times when I need to write an essay on a road trip and I couldn't use my laptop due to battery reasons or lack of wifi connection. Google docs was great at allowing me to type my essays on my phone. It was a little bit trickier to use, simply because the screen isn't as big to fully display everything, but it did the job! And there is also an option to show the print layout so that the formatting is adjusted when you are done typing.

I have tried this out before when my home button was broken. It was a little tricky for me to use at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was super helpful! It is a great tool and I loved the customization of it!

this is a great acronym and is easy to remember! I am excited to use this when evaluating UX for my research paper

These words are degrading and dehumanizing. Person-first language is so important, and needs to be used everywhere! Disabilities are not something to "fix" about a person, they are part of who the person is and the world needs to adapt to their abilities, not the other way around.

so many of these things come with aging which is a natural human process and is almost inevitable among most humans.

This sounds like a surprising statement at first, but when you think about it, there are a lot of disabilities that go unseen. And it pains me to know that such a large population struggles daily due to a lack of priority, care, understanding, and accommodation among the creators and engineers within our society. Make it make sense, and make things accessible.

this is also another perk to technology! Global interactions help to gain a broader perspective on specific techniques.

I think this is great! I partake in journaling, and have found it to be very helpful. I am sure that blogging makes it you feel more validated when other people are reading your thoughts and agreeing with them, or challenging them causing you to critically think about your message.

It will better your students learning experience if you feel more confident in yourself, and are taking care of yourself physically and mentally. This is why PLNs are so important!

There are unfortunately a lot of responsibilities and expectations that come with being a teacher. A disadvantage to having a PLN might be a low sense of self-confidence due to high comparison among other teachers in the community. However, that is why it is important to find communities with like-minded people to you so that your struggles are not diminished, and you can learn helpful tips to better your work habits and daily life well-being.

This is upsetting, but also understandable. Sometimes, new ideas can be frowned upon by others who have been doing something for years and years, and it can be scary to share new ideas. But after all, that is all that learning is about. I think this connects to the involvement in the twitter chats because a lot of us are not in the educational work force yet, but we are still capable of sharing new and helpful information to others who may need to change their perspective a bit. Others may have been teaching for years and years, but might have also fallen into a closed-off pattern and might need a bit more insight into their educational world of resources. Building a PLN can help open our minds and expand our work environments to be more inclusive and up-to-date.

Social media networking is definitely a great advantage to teachers. I see it all over tik tok, twitter, and facebook. These spaces are great ways for educators to find helpful tips for their careers, and also find a space to connect on an emotional level to support one another. Teaching is a hard gig, and it is nice to find a space where other people know similar battles.

This is really upsetting, and I cannot imagine the hardships that teachers went through during the pandemic. At least in person, they can interact with their students, but when they are at home talking to a screen, it was probably much more isolating. I worked at a summer camp, and going through the whole day was really tough just interacting with kids alone. But, luckily, I had a co-counselor to work with me throughout my day, and it was nice to have someone else my age around. I wonder if co-teaching is more or less effective for teachers' mental health.

This is great! Educational tools and demands change constantly, so the needs of teachers are also changing constantly. It is great to have PLNs that can adapt to the teaching community from a personal and group focus point. This way, teachers can change their resource priority needs and send it over to other members of their professional community if need be!

I think a lot of times people associate social media platforms with comedic posts, or entertainment. I am guilty of this too. I often forget that these platforms are great educational tools and a good place to browse if doing light research. But it is important to be careful that the things you are reading are credible.