Emma's Tech Blog

I signed up for LIS 724 with very little expectation for what I would learn and accomplish during this short course. My opinion on technology’s place in education was very basic and based only on my experience as a student. I have not yet had the opportunity to teach in a traditional se nse but as a future librarian I will most definitely have to teach in some capacity . As noted in previous blog posts, I do some teaching as a reference assistant at Dominican’s library. If you hop on chat and ask a question you have a chance of it being me! The teaching I do is mostly about how to use libra ry resources, but I also do some research consultation. Both of these heavily rely on technology and I could not do my job without my computer open and ready to assist .   I am lucky to have found such an amazing community of teachers and information professionals in this course with me. It is one thing to explore technology in education and another to learn with classmates through their ow...

Effective active learning for me is active learning that does not present itself as such. Until I began my MLIS (Master of Library and Information Science) degree, I had never encountered the phrase active learning . I  definitely participated in active learning activities in school . I just did not know that there was a name or broader goal and thought process behind those activities. Now that I am technically in a teaching profession, it is important for me to stay up on engaging learning strategies in case I ever have to teach an information literacy class . In this blog I will investigate one active learning activity that I have personally found helpful while a student. But first, what exactly is active learning?   What is Active Learning?   As opposed to the older way of doing things, active learning is not instructor focused. Although lectures are still valuable in some instances, and I personally enjoy and gain a lot from this type of teaching, the cur...

Technology has become an integral part of education and instruction at all grade levels. Certainly, students do not go a day without using some sort of technology to complete an assignment. Educators have their in dividual opinions on technology in the classroom, but there is littl e room to argue that there is no place for it. Most , if not all, undergraduate and graduate programs use a learning mana gement system to distribute the syllabus , assignments , and course announcements. Technology is fully integrated into education, but the extent of that integration is fully dependent on the instructor. How do instructors decide when to incorporate technology into their lessons? How are they using it to best serve their students?   The SAMR Model   The SAMR Model presents a framework for teachers to evaluate their use of technology in the classroom. SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition which are further categorized with the first two con...