Journal 7: PLN

Throughout this class, we have discovered many outlets to connect to the professional world via social media and websites. We have looked at Twitter, RSS feeds, and Affinity Groups. The professional learning network which I have joined was the NAAE or the National Association of Agricultural Educators. Reading through the topic posts,  I realized the different concerns and needs that are very unique compared to most if not all subject matters. There are topics about curriculum,  FFA activities, leadership development, conferences and shared lesson plans and lab activities. These are real life situations and experiences that agriculture educators and had and shared with others on NAAE experiences such as activities going wrong and questions on labs and curriculum. The RSS feeds are an excellent source for news as well as my affinity group. I can briefly view over 30 articles with a very short amount of reading. It connects the NAAE with other science news sites where i can pull information of provide relevant topics for the days lesson. In the case of twitter, I do not even  usually use it in my everyday life. I have seen both sides of the argument from the class and I do not think I would use it unless it is a fun creative lab or response from a lecture where they have to create hashtags or utilizes the restriction of one hundred characters or less to generate a response. Overall the experience that I have gained from this assignment has been to reflect and I have seen the various tools  that as an educator, I can use in order to add relevant information or even share my experience with the other educators in my field.  

Journal 6: Self-Reflection

Through out this class I have learned so much that I never thought I would need to know or use. However, now that I have learned all this new information I am grateful and was proved wrong in so many ways. Before this class I never thought I would benefit from learning HTML or how to code or develop simple websites, and provided me with opportunities to use this knowledge in my future classroom with my students. Although I am not well versed or professional by any means, being able to develop a class website, and provide useful information and features on it to my students can greatly benefit rhem and the parents. The thing I found to be most difficult in this class was the labs and assignments in which we had to create several links. Why this was the most difficult and challenging to me was because of the several issues that can arise from moving and saving documents in different places, which therefore would break the link and would require several reattempts and lots of trouble shooting. However, once the issues were solve and I learned to stop moving and reorganizing my assignments it became alot easier. That is why,  on the opposite side of the spectrum the most rewarding assignment for me was being able to link and upload to the server my entire table of book exercises. Although this class has tested my patience on several occasions I have learned several new programs and essentially an entire new language in website development. This class has also made me appreciate all the work and dedication that it takes to create the websites I visit and use on a daily basis.

Journal 5: Try Twitter

For over the last week, I have been trying out and exploring twitter, a social media source that I had no prior experience with.  The experience overall was good, it took a little bit of time to learn the basics and decide who and what to start following.  Using the suggestions provided in class I was able to search the different tags and begin following different people and associations. This experience with twitter and the discussions in class have helped me realize the potential a social media site such as this has in the classroom. Although I would need to become more versed in the ins and outs of the site before I began using it in my classroom.

Q1: How would you use twitter in your classroom??
A1: The way in which I would consider using twitter in my classroom would be communicating with experts.  To me this is the most beneficial for the students and myself to interact on this form of social media. Not only could students communicate directly with experts, I myself can communicate with them and receive advice on areas of interest in my field.

Q2: In what ways could students use twitter in the classroom?
A2: The different ways in which I could engage my students through using twitter in the classroom would be to have them tweet about current events, study questions or hints/tips, or as part of research have them do a scavenger hunt to find different resources.  This could also act as a way for me to monitor their learning and where there may still be some lack of clarity on specific topics.

Journal 4: Project Plan

Site Name: Introduction to Agricultural Education

Site Developer: Ashley Salsgiver

Rationale or Focus: The purpose of this site is to provide information to new and incoming high school agriculture students as well as parents, other school staff and other members of the public who may be interested in the different aspects of the agriculture programs offered at high schools.  Additionally, this site will be used as a tool in recruiting incoming freshman to the program.

Main Features Outline: The main features of this site include: a home page, site navigation to pages for each aspect of the program (Classroom, FFA, and Supervised Agricultural Experience Projects), and a calendar of all activities and events for the year.  There will also be a link to the National FFA Organization website.

Content: The homepage will provide an introduction to the program as a whole, and welcome to all new students and future students. The classroom page will provide the different classes available at the school within the Ag program and a brief description of each class. The Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) page will provide background information about what an SAE is, what types are available, and other potential project ideas.  The FFA page will provide an overview of the different activities the program is involved in and past and present events.

Target Audience: The target audience of this site is to new and incoming high school students to the program, parents, and other school staff (i.e. counselors) who are involved in the enrollment of students into the agriculture program.

Design Considerations: I will design the site in a way that makes it easy to navigate, and also inviting and fun for students.  Because this site is also meant to be used as a recruitment tool it should be very exciting and welcoming to the potential members. The site will also be designed in a way to gear it towards a wide audience.

Limiting Factors: My own inexperience in web design will be the first limiting factor in creating this website.  The other limiting factor is the sizes and number of pictures I will be able to include in order to keep the downloading speed for being affected. The last limiting factor I foresee is making the site accessible to everyone.

Wire-Frame:


Site Map:

Journal 3: Social Media in Schools

Kessler, S. (2010, September 29). The Case For Social Media in Schools. Retrieved October 20, 2014.

In the article "The Case For Social Media in Schools" the author discusses the several benefits of using social media sites in a school setting.  The benefits she highlights include students being engaged and therefore learning better, the several available free and safe tools available to use social media in the classroom, the collaboration that is created when social media is used in the classroom, as well as the amount of time students spent on the internet doing homework versus the amount of time they spent procrastinating on the internet. The point I found to be the greatest lesson from this article is that no matter what schools and teachers do there is always going to be a risk when using social media in classrooms.  However, the best way to prevent the risk is to teach students how to be responsible when using social media.  When used in beneficial and responsible ways in the classroom, social media can have greater benefits to the students and their learning than the potential risks. 

Q1: In what ways do you, or will you, use social media in the classroom? 

A1: Although I am not currently a person who uses social media widely, I know that my students will be, and it is for this reason that I would use social media as a tool to engage and connect with my students in a deeper level of understanding.  By using the free social media tools mentioned in the article I can see myself creating blogs and discussion boards for my students to post on to share their thoughts and opinions on topics relating to the class. I believe this form of collaboration can have a much greater impact on their learning than the standard group project. 

Q2: How would you teach your students about being a responsible social media user? What topics would you discuss with them?

A2: I think the most important topic to discuss with my students before implementing the use of social media in the classroom would be the aspect of privacy and personal safety.  For example, discussing with them the potential risks and threats that come from providing too much personal information, as well as connecting with, or talking with people they don't know.  Social media is a great tool to connect with people who share interests with you, but you also need to maintain their security. 

Journal 2

Affinity Group:http://communities.naae.org/community/feeds/allcontent
The affinity group I am currently following is the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE).  This is a group geared towards agriculture teachers and FFA advisors.  This group provides not only classroom and lesson plan supports but also support and is a community in which ag educators can discuss, collaborate and help other ag educators with issues that are unique to the profession.  For example, agriculture educators are unique in the way that they not only teach in the classroom but also have things such as school farm sites to manage as well.  I hope that by following this affinity group I can learn the different tricks and tips that more veteran teachers can provide to new and preservice teachers such as myself.  I also think this will be a great source to get lesson plan and project ideas that are new and unique.

Digg RSS Reader:
Over the past week I have been checking my Digg RSS Feed and have learned several things.  For example, I have found this to be a great way to learn what is going on in my desired field of agriculture through following specific blogs.  However, I have also learned that it is important to follow blogs that are updated on a regular basis. A few of the blogs and newstreams I had originally decided to follow are not regularly updated and have not been updated or had new blogs posted in months.  Because of the blogs that were not updated often I chose to follow and and many new streams onto my reader, which caused me to gain a wider perspective on the blogs I am following.

Q1: How can assigning my future high school students to follow an affinity group or create their own Digg RSS Reader benefit and enrich their classroom experience?
A1: By having students either follow an affinity group, that relates to both their interests and the class  specific subject, or by creating their own RSS reader feed to follow, students can gear the subject to their own interests, as well as gain a deeper understanding of the subject and pursue the specific interests.

Q2: How can using tools such as Digg RSS Reader and joining affinity groups help develop you as a teacher?
A1: Digg RSS Reader is a fantastic tool to use in keeping up to date in the field of your profession, both as an educator and in the specific field you are teaching.  Also, by joining an affinity group of educators who share your grade level, and subject you are able to gain a wider range of resources, both from what the other educators are using within their own classrooms, as well as pose questions to other teachers who may have a different perspective than yourself, as well as more experience than yourself.  Both of these tools can be a great assest to teachers and especially preservice teachers, such as myself.

Chapters 1-3 Journal

Robbins, J. (2012). Learning web design: A beginner's guide to HTML, CSS, Javascript, and web graphics (4th ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.

Summary:  The first three chapters of Learning Web Design discusses the some of the most fundamental background knowledge necessary to begin the learning process of web design as well at the several different job positions that go into designing a webpage.  In addition to discussing the several different aspects of web design, such as the equipment and programs necessary to create a website, the author also describes the different types of languages that are necessary to learn in order to first start web design.  The languages discussed in the first part of the book include HTML, CSS and JavaScript, in brief detail. These chapters also provide great insight and history into the interworkings of the internet, the web, and how they have all come to be what we know today and the constant advances being made in technology and how we access the web. 

Q1: How can someone with little or no experience in web design benefit in learning all aspects of web design?

A1: No matter how big or small of a project a person wishes to take on in web design it is useful to have at least a basic knowledge of the different aspects because it allows the person to have a wider range of services available to clients, if web design is being done as a profession. However, even if it is not a profession and is being done more as a personal web design the designer can be more aware of how their site is being run and how users are interacting with the site. 

Q2: How can I, as a future teacher, use a knowledge of web design in my classroom?
A2: By being able to understand and be able to create and design a website I can allow for a wider range of interaction and greater resources for my students.  I could also possibly integrate my knowledge into a lesson plan for my students and have the students create and manage simple sites of their own.  This would be beneficial because it offers a wider range of activity for the students and allows them to integrate their interests into our class and their style of learning.