Journal #4

• I have recently been using Twitter for this class, and I have been using it to connect with my peers and seeing their ideas and tweets. I have seen how many of my peers share their appreciation, concerns, and daily thoughts on twitter. I have not twitted much, but I do enjoy using it to see what others are up too. When I start teaching my classroom, I feel like I would use twitter to display the students and their work. I would also like to make the account private and only have the parents of the students. Twitter is not something that is needed for teaching or the classroom setting, but it is nice to have. With that being said, I don't think I will use twitter in the future for my classroom. 

• The digital divided is a problem that hinders many students in school, especially when it comes to doing an assignment at home. The student without technology will have issues finding, understanding, or obtaining the material. The main issue that causes the digital divide is financial. The parents might not have the money to have internet at home, or schools can be lacking the funding to have computer labs for the students. Since, I would want to teach at a title one school, which is a predominately lower-income school. One way I can work around it is by sending them the material physically. 

• Software tools are beneficial, especially in the classroom setting. Two programs I would like to use with my students are Class Dojo and Storybird. I like the concept of Class Dojo as it is a kid-friendly version of FB and I could share what the students are doing or directly message the parents. It is also a straightforward, friendly application to use. Another software I recently discovered is Story Bird. I like it because it allows the students to engage with books and stories and even have the ability to create their own. It will enable the students to be creative and share their stories with their peers.