My meandering journey through Technologies for use in Education

 Our journey starts off in a comedic fashion. I misread the assignment at the beginning of the semester and listed the following three things: learning about my new smart refrigerator, using voice dictation software for writing, and looking at Christmas decorations I bought last year for their wireless functionality. Now two of the above items I can't justify any educational merit. However, I will showcase them because they do inadvertently demonstrate how I learned and used new technology which I feel will be valuable in the classroom. Let's press in our journey.

Here is my smart refrigerator. I like many features about it. I am disappointed about its interactive features, because none of them have any practical use. I included the picture because of what I have on my refrigerator, a whiteboard calendar. I have a giant whiteboard in my office next to my computer that I use when I am brainstorming and trying to figure out things and need to step back away from the computer.
I like the dead tree medium, and I also enjoy the physical whiteboard. There are several very nice options for digital whiteboards for use. There is whiteboard.chat that is great all around. You can record lessons or open up the white board for you class to participate. I think there is a lot of merit to this. At a physical whiteboard there is only so much room to stand around and you are only using the amount of space that students can reach. Multiple people can all use this digital whiteboard at the same time and can access and interact at the same time on the same space. There are two other options that you can you if you already have a google account and a Microsoft account. The google one is ok. I wasn't able to try the Microsoft one since I don't have a license for any of their products on my computer. Below are a few links.
(4) Whiteboard.Chat Tutorial for Teachers | My favorite virtual whiteboard! - YouTube
5 Best Digital Whiteboard Tools for Your Classroom - YouTube

The only original ideal I looked at was dictating using voice to text. Primally, I used google.doc to do rough drafts for homework assignments. I tried Microsoft also, but it seemed just like google.doc so besides trying it out I never spent any time really using it. I liked it because I could just spin in my gaming while I spoke to google. The problem I had/have is that whenever I would "pause" to recall the specific word I wanted to use, google.doc would decide I had finished and added a period. I could change the options to remove punctuation, so I wouldn't get a bunch of random periods scattered throughout my writing assignment, but that just meant I would just have to add all the periods for the entire assignment. I don't think that either of the methods was better or worse than the other, but it was an issue that constantly plagued me.

How To Use Voice Typing in Word and Google Docs - YouTube


And since I'm showing success and failure you will love this next video.

As you can see I can remotely turn my Christmas lights on and off using Wi-Fi technology with my home internet and Wi-Fi. However, this does not assist in technology in the classroom. This did point me in the right direction. I read and looked at at limitations that teachers have in their classrooms and what they have to do to overcome obstacles for their students. Here are some examples.

Did You Know - Electrical Outlets - YouTube

Charging station in classroom - YouTube

I am glad I have an interest in hardware side of things, because there will be limitations and restrictions that need to overcome in order to use technology in the classroom.

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