Blog #4

 My early experiences with Instagram and Twitter don't reach all that far back as I have only just downloaded Twitter for this class and began using Instagram halfway through high school. Initially, using instagram meant interacting with my close friends and others from my classes and clubs. It was very useful when it came to the information networks of clubs. I also used Instagram to get in touch with those from my classes so we could help each other to better understand the material. In my future career, I can use Instagram similarly with those who are on the same path as me as well as those who provide resources for my future career.

Growing up, I went to relatively digitally rich schools. Each of the schools I went to typically had many computer labs and class sets of laptops as well as projectors set up in every room. My K-12 experience did a good job setting me up for my college technology preparation. I am familiar with many popular educational services and have a good grasp on how to troubleshoot my issues with technology. Although, since there was never a real lack for technology, there wasn't a lot of intentional instruction for how to use it. It was usually assumed that we were familiar with technology since we had it in abundance.

Collaborative writing and social annotation can be really useful in an educational setting. Software tools such as Google Docs and Co-Ment are great examples of software that I would implement in my future classroom to support collaborative writing and social annotation. Both of these tools allow for groups of students to share their thoughts with one another as they digest the same content. They can be used to foster learning by allowing students to build of off one another. A lesson I might use these tools to teach, as an english teacher, would be the analyzation of texts. Through social annotation, students may all look at the same texts and collaboratively build off of one another to highlight and point out details to help each other further analyze a text.