Twitter, The Digital Divide, and Student Software

With Twitter becoming of growing use for professional use, it is a very important tool for networking. I have been interacting mostly with The Florida State University Twitter, the FDOE, and have tweeted once about taking the FTCE. I have not found this very helpful in all honesty. I have had more networking interactions across Facebook with joining groups that interest me or that are in my future field. This would probably be helpful to interact with students mostly sending reminders about anything they may need for the day.

The digital divide provides unequal opportunities in schools and will often discourage many students who do not have access from doing things of interest. It also will affect how much knowledge a student will have access to while others may have unlimited technology and knowledge at their disposal, some may have to search far and wide to gain that same knowledge. The divide is caused by lack of funding in counties. Some of the better school may have more money in their budgets to get technology while others must spend it on disciplinary actions or actions to ensure students safety. As a teacher, there is a chance that my school may have a single computer lab so I must be diligent when planning my lessons so that I can plan ahead if I would like to use it. On the other hand, if there is an abundance of technology then I could require a lot more activities that involve use of technology.

I will probably be using software such as Quizlet. This software is handy for students to study any material that I may not have as much time to focus on in class. I may also look into using SmartMusic which records the student's playing and gives them instant feedback and a flat grade so students will practice. You can also assign music on there and I could always assign pieces that we are playing in class.