With technology being such a prevalent part of society there is no reason we shouldn’t be using it in our classrooms. I have been trying to use as much technology as I can by using apps on the iPads or different websites for fun activities with the students but I hadn’t really though of using V.R. in my classroom. I like the idea of taking a virtual tour of a different place or giving students the opportunity to be apart of the ecosystem we are studying. I think this would be such a fun tool for students.

When I think of virtual reality I automatically think of the head set but it doesn’t always have to be that, it could be even taking a virtual tour of a different city or museum on the smart-board or projector.

This week was the first time I got to experience different ways you could use virtual reality in the classroom. I believe it can be an awesome tool for the classroom that will immerse students in their learning. I did a little more research and found some really cool things you can do with it. Such as visiting a third world country, time traveling to different historical events in the past and even exploring the human body! I got these ideas from these really cool image I wanted to share with you guys that has some awesome reasons to use it in the classroom. Its activities like this that will really engage and enrich the students learning and activate their critical thinking and interest in different topics. I really love this!

I wanted to dive into the idea of digital identity a little more, with technology and internet being such a huge part of our everyday world, I believe it is important to speak on the idea of digital identity and what it means to me as an educator and how we should educate our students on it as well. Digital identity refers to the footprint you have left online, this might be any social media web pages you have or a website you have left a comment on, etc. This is an important concept to think about as a pre-service teacher because our digital identities may be taken into consideration when being considered for a job. Therefore, we need to be cautious of what we are putting online and if it is a fair representation of who we are.

Another aspect of this has to do with educating our students on their digital identity. This is important for they might not see how their online life is a representation of their everyday life and may see it as a second identity. This can be dangerous when considering their future, something the commented on somebodies video at a young age can be seen by someone at a university or someone who plays a huge role in their future. This is the idea behind the video I attached and I though it had a really good message behind it as well. I believe this video could be played for students to show them that what they do online matters and show them that they need to be accountable for what they are doing online.

Digital identity can be a great asset when used in the right way and children really do have an amazing opportunity when using the internet. I just believe it is important to be aware of what you are putting out there as well as educating our students on it in order for it to be the amazing tool it can be!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p433K12rjPE

Organization is key to any successful teacher, I believe this also accounts for our online presence as well as in our classroom. While keeping organized in the classroom may look like a clean desk, planned week and a tidy classroom the same can not be said for an online presence. Curation may look like apps or websites that are easily accessable to students, ways for students to organize research information effectively and easy to find links or other resources for students.

In order to keep things organized online as a student I use tools such as Pinterest, google drive, google calendar as well as creating icons on my home screen in order to access things quickly. Another tool I use is something as simple as making folders in my iPad and naming them in a way that I will know what is in them. This is something that I would definitly use in a classroom that has iPads, it would make it easy to direct the students where they need to go for a certain app. As for organizing online resources and games for students I would use symbaloo it is a great website that you can have all your favourite sites linked to and each link can have a different picture or logo to go with it. I would set it as the homepage on my classroom computers to make it easy for students to access the website I want them on at that time.

In order for students to organize their ideas I would like to try an app like kidspiration, it allows them to develop a concept map which would help with generating ideas during writing time. This is just one concept mapping app I would like to try but if anyone has any others that they have tried I would love to hear about them as well as any other curation apps you find useful in your classrooms!

My name is Emily Pearen and I am a second year student in the early years stream. I am from Binscarth, Manitoba… it is a really small town like population is maybe over 100. I went to school there until grade eight and then I went to Major Pratt in Russell. I carried on with my high school career there and graduated in 2013. I then moved to Brandon in order to further my education here at Brandon University. I graduated with an arts degree and now here I am. I hope to get some awesome resources in the class and maybe share a few with my classmates