Diigo Vs. Pinterest: How best to organize your ideas

      Technology as a way for teachers to share information with each other is growing quickly. The two internet tools I will discuss are DIIGO which is a bookmarking website which allows you to access your bookmarks from any computer and Pinterest which is a social media site that allows teachers to share ideas. 

       If you are working on a school computer and need quick access to your list of websites in order to find something. It is especially useful because you can highlight information on your bookmarked links and it will save the highlights. It also allows you to apply tags to each link allowing you to easily organize the posts in to subject matter. This site allows you to follow other users and have access to their links allowing you to see and comment on their links. This idea sharing allows you to collaborate and share ideas if you are working on a project together or are co-teaching and looking for ideas.

       Pinterest on the other hand is more of a social media site where people can share their pics and links to a public forum that is easy to search and find ideas through. For me Pinterest has a clear value as a tool for learning. DIIGO as a valuable tool is not as apparent as Pinterest because of the vast number of teachers using Pinterest to share their ideas. Users are also able to organize their boards and collect ideas that fit into certain topics. 

      For me my preference was Pinterest because i enjoyed the open nature of the website and the vast amount of ideas that are already being shared there. 

How to Never Stop Learning as A Teacher

       As a teacher it is hard to keep up with all the new technology that is available to the students outside of the classroom but it is even more important to find a way to integrate it in the classroom. Students now have access to more technology then ever before and it is changing so fast. 
      The Future Starts Now is a video highlighting the issue with the Norwegian schools falling behind in education. The video claims this is due to the schools are not taking advantage of the opportunity to use the technology the students are so familiar with. The new technology offers so much opportunity to expand what the learning experience can be. The video mentioned the integration of technology to make Norway a country that relies on education after its natural resources dry up. This is because sadly there is a high dropout rate in Norway as a result people believe it is a lack of ICT in the schools. 
    The video mentions the ability for teachers to make learning more then just lecturing but a multi-sense learning experience. If the teachers can make technology integration an important and valuable addition to the classroom the potential is endless.

    I am personally unsure if this video paints a completely accurate picture of the complete reality of technology in the classroom. As I personally was not a student in high school after all of technology was integrated into the classroom, all I can do is hope it works out in the future. 

    
      The modern teacher who integrates technology into the classroom has to constantly keep learning to keep up with the changing trends. Technology has changed so much in the last ten years alone, the teachers in the video A Vision of 21st Century Teachers are spending hours a week in order to keep up. Teachers have to be willing to keep students a part of the class and the current generation is so involved with technology that teachers don't have a choice but to make it a part of the classroom. Like the previous video mentioned teaching students with the new technology is important for the future but this video looked at the commitment that comes from the teacher to better themselves.

     The future of education looks like it will have heavy involvement with technology because it is gonna become more integrated in our lives. As long as this integration is positive for the students and the teachers it means nothing but good news for the future!

How Blogs can be Useful for Students and Professional Development

Blogs can be useful for professional development as a ESL instructor because it opens up the ability for instructors from all over the world to collaborate in an informal setting. The ability for educational professional to share ideas and aid each other in lesson development means that the teachers can learn what works and what is a good way to critique any issues in their lesson pans. The self reflection that is involved with blogging allows the teacher to be able to put even more thought into the lessons they present the students with. As well as allowing them to keep a record of any issue that arose with the lesson plan any creative ways to fix the issue.

Blogs value to students can be equally as large as that for teachers because ESL students might not use english often out side of the classroom and blogs allow students the ability to post their best work online. It also allows the students to work together through peer review and critique to help each other grow as ESL students. Students learn from tons of different sources and a blog can allow them to share what they have learned from books or look at current news stories and share they opinions. Students can even share their interest in music and tv shows that are in english as long as the students are sharing and discussing it in english there is a chance for them to develop from it.

Performance Indicator - ESL.C.9-12.1.1.2: Students read, gather, view, listen to, organize, discuss, interpret, and analyze information related to academic content areas from various sources.