Blog Journal 5

     Before this class, I did not have twitter installed on my device. I have had a twitter account before, but it was mostly used for social interactions alone. Now that I have been using my new twitter account for EME, I have a better understanding of new ways I can use this website. It has a lot of educational information that I have been browsing. I have followed some of my classmates and seen some interesting tweets from those education accounts. I plan to interact more with these accounts throughout my time in this class.

    The digital divide is a concept I have been aware of for a while, but I did not know its exact term. The digital divide refers to the difference in abilities and opportunities between those that have easy internet access and those who do not. This can make it very difficult for the students who do not have easy access to succeed due to the growth in online assignments from teachers. It is more difficult for them and gives other students more of an advantage. Some causes of this divide could be an area that has bad internet access, or it could be that the student does not have access to a computer at home for economic reasons. As a teacher, I may encounter students that are not as privileged as other students and do not have internet at home. I would compensate for this by asking the students in an anonymous survey if they have internet access at home. If some do not, I would make sure to only assign homework that can be done without the internet and use the internet more in class so they still get experience with it. 

    Some academic software tools I would use in class are Kahn Academy and Socrative for students. Kahn academy allows students independent study time and tutorials that can further their understanding on any math topic. This would be useful for any student who just needs more practice or missed a day in school and needs to be taught what we went over in class. Socrative is a good tool because it is used more for in-class activities. I could have an assessment on this or have an exit ticket activity after every class about what we learned today. These tools are very useful for students both at home and in the classroom.