Blog Post #4

At the beginning of EME 2040, I was a bit skeptical about a class Twitter page. I have had a few prior experiences when teachers have used the class-social media concept and it has not worked. Now that we have been in EME for 6 weeks now, I realize that the class Twitter was actually an excellent idea. I enjoy interacting with my classmates during our live-tweet class sessions and even outside of the classroom. It is very interesting to see what everyone is thinking about the subjects we are discussing inside of class. I feel that I have been interacting with several of my classmates, including Richard and Will, and also through direct message with Taehyeong. Twitter will be such a major advantage in my future career because so much occurs on the social media and it is so important now to be proficient in all the features. Twitter offers so many different ways to connect with other people and companies and can be an immense positive in the workplace if used properly. 

The digital divide affects student success in school because not every student has equal access to technology. The digital divide could come down to being a student in a school with a great amount of funding which leads to better and more technology and more technological opportunities or being a student in a not so affluent area with less access to technology or just not having the most up-to-date technology. Technology is such an asset in the society we live in today and not having access to it could actually be detrimental to one's learning ability. The society is quickly transitioning to a tech-based world and having as much knowledge as possible is what will lead to being successful later in life. Some causes of the digital divide are household income or even a student's location. As a teacher, some students may not have the same amount of access to technology as others so I will have to compensate by assigning work that fairly assesses students and that does not require a mass amount of technological input. 

There are several softwares I would consider using a teacher, including drill-and-practice, problem-solving, and tutorials. However, the software I would definitely use the most is the educational games. When I was younger, teachers would give us websites to visit that had games associated with the subject we were learning and it actually helped greatly to reenforce what we were going over. I feel that pairing teaching with some type of fun activity will allow students to connect to the subject much better, especially at such a young age. The software I do not expect to use is the concept-mapping software. I believe that students at the age I would like to teach at would not totally grasp the concept of "maps" and the entirety of the brainstorming process. All the softwares in the textbook will give students great advantages, just at different times in their school careers.