Blog Post #8: Thursday 10/27
New Skills Acquired from Web Design Assignment
The Web Design assignment gave me a lot of insight into working with Wix and developing an effective resource for information about a classroom. Regarding Wix itself, I thought it was mostly easy to navigate and interactive. My troubles with the software concern options for the user. I wish that headings, images, and embeddings could be inserted virtually anywhere on a page. However, the software usually wouldn't allow these things to deviate from a specific few spots. Regarding the assignment, I didn't enjoy having to create a class calendar (although brief). However, I enjoyed seeing the website come all together. The things I learned in this assignment could help me in the public health field by marketing myself and my services and creating a website if necessary.
New Skills Acquired from Diigo
Diigo taught me more about effective annotations and group forums. I also became more familiar with tags and choosing which ones to use. In a classroom, Diigo could be very useful for older students. The task of acquiring relevant academic resources is a great skill to have. Hypothetically, entire grades could form a group on Diigo and share resources. Otherwise, Diigo could help small groups of students create a strong foundation for a group research project via communicative resource sharing in particular categories. In a public health sense, I could use Diigo to share updated science on health with colleagues. As a public health official or hospital administrator, it's very important to be aware of the recent research discourse in the health field.
Technology and Teacher Professional Development
I believe that teaching a proper understanding of technology is one of the primary ways to keep children safe in the United States. Therefore, teachers must be hyper-knowledgeable about technological innovation to be good educators. In addition to safety, technology in this age is crucial for professional development. At least 65% of new jobs in the United States mandate medium or advanced technological skills (writersblocklive.com). The field of education is certainly not an exception to this reality. In my opinion, being an educator requires above-average technological skills. To put this into perspective, consider virtual meetings, digital teaching tools, and the popularization of school-issued IPads. Being unfamiliar with the digital resources used in one's classroom results in wasted class time in which the teacher attempts to comprehend their resource.
Science Daily has a subpage all about education technology news:
Even though the alignment is obvious, the academic game page compliments it effectively. The proximity was well implemented. Following CRAP standards, the contrast is clear on your website. The page heads and the page headings have the same typeface, demonstrating consistency in the repetition.
ReplyDeleteI like your consistency across the page, you chose a font that was easy to read but still adds a little character! Nice work
ReplyDeleteYour website looks really good! I like the scrolling images on the header, it's a nice touch. I think the menu text could have a bit more contrast but other than that it looks really solid.
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