Blog Post #3

Out of all of the ELA technology standards, I would say that the one I would be most comfortable with teaching about would be SL.3 - "Evaluate Speaker's Point of View". This standard involves evaluating a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence or rhetoric; I often used these skills in my high school courses and feel that I would be able to communicate these skills effectively when applied to media sources. The one ELA technology standard that I would need to be more educated about, however, would be SL.5 - "Use Digital Media". This standard involves making strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information/enhance understanding of presentations. Although I have used digital media in the past, there are a wide variety of sources that I am unfamiliar with and would need extra guidance before trying to communicate this standard with others.

Based on the information presented in chapter nine, the technology application that I would like to use with my future students would be an online blog. If my current plan follows through, I will end up becoming a high school teacher in the English department and a blog would fit perfectly with the curriculum. Since I will be teaching in a high school atmosphere, the digital citizenship guideline that would appropriately fit this situation would be: "Student participation in the community is meaningful, appropriate, and on topic and advances the community as a whole". As high schoolers, they will already demonstrate the technology skills necessary to use the blog but they will need encouragement to contribute appropriately and respectfully to the assignment(s).

To be honest, the main thing that I learned from the newsletter design assignment was how much work teachers actually put into those newsletters - all those years spent in school, I didn't even realize how much time and energy went into making them! I will say, however, that I initially struggled with the "two column" function and I was even confused on how to insert a hyperlink. If I were to do this assignment a second time, I would not wait until the last minute to think of article topics, because being creative can be hard sometimes. Either way, I am pretty happy with how my newsletter design assignment turned out!