Blog Journal 3

          I feel particularly qualified to help students "cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis". That standard is one that I have to deal with myself in my major, Literature, in just about every assignment that I complete. One standard that I am less accustomed to is creating narratives to develop real or imagined experiences. Most of my writing experience is based on analysis rather than narrative, so I am not as familiar with that standard as I would like to be if I were to teach it.
          The resource Investigating Essential and Nonessential Elements breaks down sentence syntax and strips away everything except the fundamentals of understanding syntax. Because it is such a baseline approach, it would be useful in working with individuals who haven't had an opportunity to learn about English grammar. That said, many people who have some experience with grammar could benefit from a review, so this tool is applicable to a wide audience. I don't expect to be teaching English, but if I was, this tool would be extremely valuable.
          The Newsletter Design assignment taught me, above all else, that I don't know as much about Word as I thought. I primarily use word processing for traditional essays and papers, so many of the features in the newsletter were new to me. The graphic design aspects of mine are rough, as I don't have much of an eye for that sort of thing. I also did not spend as much time on the newsletter as I should've, which stemmed from my overconfidence in my Word skills.

I use Word as a student a great deal because, as an English major, I have to write a lot and often. I've worked my way through a whole lot of pages, but despite that I feel like I've barely used many of Word's features. All I need typically is Times New Roman, some spacing tweaks, and some miscellaneous formatting. There is still much to the program that I need to learn.

Academic honesty is pertinent to my work on what feels like a daily basis. A lot of my coursework involves analyzing academic journals or including their findings in my own research papers. Unsurprisingly, citing sources and ensuring that you only use accessible information are both reiterated constantly over in Williams. I've had professors who claimed that they would fail you for plagiarism, but I've never had the nerve or misfortune to test them.

I don't plan to teach, but academic dishonesty is relevant to being a librarian as well. Librarians work with, and help others use academic online databases frequently. A crucial aspect of using the knowledge curated in said databases is attributing borrowed information in the appropriate fashion. If I were at a college library for instance, I'd want to establish sessions to both teach students how to get the most out of online databases and how to appropriately cite and utilize information in order to avoid academic dishonesty. A lack of funding in an academic library setting would negatively impact the amount of databases that students and faculty would be able to access. Universities spend a large amount money maintaining access to online databases for academic journals and other materials, and losing them in a budget cut would be tough to handle. I suppose I'd have to do my best to guide students to tangible research materials relevant to their studies. This would narrow the collection of information they could use significantly, and would be a blow to a library's efficacy.

Technology in the classroom can both facilitate learning and help engage students in the material. Technology can also gauge competency and understanding of material in ways that traditional methods may not, which will help students master material in a way that they would prefer, while simultaneously allowing teachers to cater to their students’ needs. Involving technology in assessments makes it easier for teachers to grade and respond to material, while also creating avenues for involved and specific feedback for the students. Technological application allows for teachers to accomplish more in less time, while allowing students to receive a personalized experience.

An aspect of the ISTE standards that appeals to me specifically is 7c: Using assessment data to guide progress and build self-direction. In the Marching Chiefs I work with incoming freshmen, teaching them marching fundamentals to prepare them for evaluations that will determine their admittance to the ensemble. Receiving and processing feedback is a critical part of my job and my responsibility to my students. One of the hardest parts of working with a group for something like that is that not everyone progresses at the same pace. It can be difficult to apply feedback when the needs of students vary so widely. Because of that, the potential for technology to facilitate specific feedback is extremely appealing to me.

Point 6c is one that I have no real experience with. I’ve never had to assign individuals a task that requires them to formulate a design plan. I don’t know much about how to formulate such a challenge, and as a result, this point is far outside my comfort zone. Hopefully I’ll be able to add design plan formulation to my skill set soon enough.

I don’t know that I feel like a digital native, but I have been around technology in an academic setting for the better part of my life. While I do sometimes laugh at people older than me struggling to adapt to technology, I am absolutely sure that before too long, I’ll be in the same boat. Some new technology is bound to come along and be just as alien to me as smartphones and fitbits are to my parents. Fundamentally, technology is going to continue fulfilling the same purpose: facilitation. Students in the future may have different tools in their classroom environments than I did and do, but they will still be using them to facilitate learning. The digital natives of the future may have entirely different technology than I grew up with, but as long as the core benefits of technology remain intact, students of the future will benefit from technology in learning environments just as I have.