RDNG654 - Lampton

       I have been using various social media platforms since I was 13 years old. That was the age dictated by Facebook, so that was a good enough guideline for my parents. Prior to joining any of these apps, I learned about my Digital Footprint. I was told that everything on the Internet stays on there. Forever. Needless to say, I was excited to share my thoughts with the world, but aware of the potential risks that these posts would have on my future. I also believe that social media can be harmful to people's mental health but that it also provides an opportunity for connection. In my lifetime, I have taken short social media breaks and found that my general mood increases and my anxiety decreases. However, without these apps, I missed out on opportunities to connect with my friends and family and missed news updates related to politics (both in the US and internationally). Social media is so engrained into our society that to be fully without it leaves you out of...

 My first exposure to multimedia projects was in a computer class. I went to a small Catholic elementary school where one of my weekly specials was this class. We learned typing skills, how to use Microsoft programs, and practiced using a variety of online tools. One of these tools was a GIF creator. I don't remember the name of the program, though the fact that I was using it in 2007 leads me to believe that it either no longer exists or has been replaced with something much more advanced. We used Microsoft Paint to create images and this GIF creator to animate them. Because I went to Catholic school, our GIF was an animation of an Advent wreath being lit. For anyone who is unfamiliar with an Advent wreath, I have attached a Youtube video below. Just a quick note that the video ends at 2:13 and continues playing music on a black background until the end of the video.  For this blog, I recreated the process using current day applications. To create the images, I used JS paint ...

       Every time I test an app for my classroom, I think seriously about how they will add or detract from my students' learning experience. I have a couple "go-to" apps that I have found useful over the years teaching ELA. All of my classes have responded differently to these apps, so I am constantly looking for new apps to introduce to my students. Through this project, I found two I'd like to try with my students and was reminded of one of my go-to apps. Pre-Writing For this category, I found a storyboarding app that did not impress me as much as one that I already use: Storyboard Tha t . As a 4th grade teacher, I find that my students often struggle with forming sentences and spelling very simple words. They often use the speech to text feature on their Chromebooks and the administration at my school has poured lots of resources into intervention on foundational reading skills. I introduced the Storyboard That app as a way to get to know my students. My first as...