Technology Assessment: 8 Tools

Through out the course of learning Technology Applications for Education, I've gained so much knowledge on things I didn't even know existed. This blog will contain some tech tools that i've come across and used. There are some tools that are great and not as great, but either way hope it benefits some more than others.

Each tool is rated
1 - Okay for use, but needs improvement.
2-Good because it is useful with only minor complications.
3-Awesome and highly recommended for use.

Moodle Rating- 2

Moodle is an online class tool. The University of Guam uses Moodle to it's full potential giving students access to full online courses. Students are able to see anything the professor posts from assignments, to quizzes and tests, and any lecture material. Helpful links and documents are easily posted for students to see. Students are able to turn in assignments and keep track of anything due through the calendar provided. Useful things such as messaging are provided as well. My only concern for this is that it will work best if the Professor is consistent with dates, keeps it organized, and responds to student messages. I've done a handful of online courses through Moodle at the University and i've experienced some difficulties in certain classes. If it wouldn't have been for my technology class showing me the full potential of Moodle I would have completely despised this tool. For now it's not the best, but it is still helpful.

 Chrome Rating- 3

Google Chrome is a great web browser especially for those who are avid users of Gmail and Google apps. It is simple to use, available for all devices including tablets and phones, and it is absolutely free. 

Google Apps Rating- 3

Google Apps is one of the best things to have been invented along side computers. If you have a gmail account, everything is at the tip of your fingers. Google Drive offers documents such as Forums, Doc, Sheets, which are great alternatives to Microsoft office which tend to be expensive. Google is absolutely free. Blogger, which is currently being used for this blog, is a great tool since it is a multimedia app. Gmail account itself is great for all email needs since there is unlimited storage. 

LiveBinders Rating- 2

LiveBinders is digital alternative to an actual binder where users can organize and share online content. It is a great tool for saving useful online links and tools. LiveBinders allows users to color code tabs and set their binders either public or private. Unfortunately,  storage use is limited on the free version and in order to access more features upgrading is a must. Some links may not also work in the LiveBinders tabs where users need to open up a different tab on their web browser to access the link. 

Emaze Rating- 3

Emaze is an online presentation tool with various set templates. Easy to upload photos and videos from Youtube. Anything from powerpoint is easily uploaded into Emaze. Presentations can be set to private or public and links are shareable. Overall very simple to use and leaves presentations looking simple, but eye-catching. 

Linoit Rating- 3

Linoit is an online based canvas where you can organize media using through sticky notes and is absolutely free! It is multimedia where you can attach videos, photos and file attachments. The great thing about Linoit is the limitless amount of canvases users can make. No more buying sticky notes and sign up for Linoit! 

Oovoo Rating- 2

Oovoo is an online conferencing tool with a free sign up that anyone can live with without having to upgrade to the premium. Aside from the ads shown in the free version, Oovoo allows up to 12 people per conference. It can be accessed on a computer, phone, or tablet. A strong Wi-fi connection is highly needed because once that connection is interrupted, audio and video will lag. 

Haiku Deck  Rating- 1

Haiku Deck is another presentation software. It looks easy to use at first and templates are simple as well, however trying to insert a photo of your choosing is beyond difficult. It would say that the photo is too large to fit into the presentation, but it won't give the option to edit in the presentation itself. What is a presentation without photos? Haiku Deck's free trial is limited to certain options. It is not completely free. They offer different packages that are paid monthly. For those who are not avid users of presentations, I highly don't recommend.  

References: 

[Moodle]. (2014, Jan 23). What is Moodle?  [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wop3FMhoLGs

[superMonsterIam]. (2015, Jan 3). 10 interesting Google chrome tips and tricks each user should know. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RwHIwocR7U

[Edtech4class]. (2015, Nov 1).  Introduction to Google Apps. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMWrsRNveSI

[McQuattersclass]. (2012, May 4).  Live Binders Tutorial. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuwVehW2Kdo

[Lauren Stokes]. (2013, Sep 15). Emaze Tutorial. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb9UuYM69ko

[Steve Kuninsky]. (2013, May 4). Linoit.com Tutorial. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLenDjfQMjM

[Safe Smart Social]. (2015, Apr 10). oovoo App- Social Media Safety Guide. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G93cEIFnzI

[Haiku Deck]. (2015, Mar 5) Introducing Haiku Deck Zuru- Presentations Powered by Artificial Intelligence. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxVMpW4eoI

Digital Safety

The availability of technology is accessible more than ever in today's society. Two-year olds are able to utilize iPads to watch video's on Youtube or use various applications to play games. Motor vehicles can connect to cellular devices to make calls easier and play music directly from the phone. Classrooms have smart boards and students have access to computers with internet. With everything being so easily accessible through technology, anyone is prone to various dangers the tech world comes with, especially younger users. As a future Secondary English Education major, I have to be aware of these dangers so that I can educate my students about them especially when they write essays, do research assignments, and just overall practice safety.
National Children's Advocacy Center provides safety tips for kids and teens and it is a great source for simple things to keep in mind. These tips emphasizes on parental involvement. Internet safety starts at home and parents are key factors in helping with internet safety. However, not many parents themselves are aware of these things, or even know how to operate a computer especially older parents. Edutopia gives an idea of how important this is. So in order to ensure digital safety among students, teachers need to offer some kind of digital safety awareness for parents. Most have smartphones, so a suggestion would be to have resources such as links available for parents to read. A great source would be Stay Safe Online. It not only offers great tips to follow for parents, but provides many other resources.
This Digital Safety assignment for Technology Education enlightened us all in the different areas of the issues we may encounter. There is so much to keep in mind, and as future educators being in a technologically literate world can be complicated. I wasn't even aware of "Phishing and Pharming" was. I knew never to give out personal information to unknown sources, but there are deeper dangers where sites can be modified to direct you to the unknown. My group was assigned to do Copy Right and Fair User Practice. We used Emaze and iMovie to present our content with little complications along the way. The only problem with Emaze for group presentations is that only the person under the account can edit the presentation. Copy right was always around us especially in English courses i've taken because writing papers involved being aware of who has done the original work. I wasn't aware of what Fair User Practice was, which is basically similar to copy right, but with certain guidelines to prevent violating copy right laws. Teachers alone have special copy right laws that give a little more leeway than the norm.
All the topics presented in class were very helpful. Aside from fair user practice and copy right issues, Digital Safety and Privacy, Cyber Bullying, Textual Harrasment, and Pharming and Pishing are important categories to keep in mind when practicing digital safety because they all correlate with one another. Bullying and fraud is one of the many issues teachers, parents, and students need to be aware of. These topics can be taught more in depth and though I did learn a lot from the class presentations, I feel that they lacked more information. Groups could have used the whole class time to present on their topics.
Overall digital safety is very important to practice to prevent dangers in the technology world. everything is easily accessed not only for the user, but predators can get to these users. Teachers need to be highly aware of these things and help both parents and students to protect themselves.

 National Children's Advocacy Center. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2016, from http://www.nationalcac.org/prevention/internet-safety-kids.html

 Raising Digital Citizens | StaySafeOnline.org. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2016, from https://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/for-parents/raising-digital-citizens

 The Importance of Internet Safety. (2012). Retrieved May 14, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/internet-safety-importance-heather-wolpert-gawron