Tech Play Reflection

 A blog is a digital way to update, inform, and communicate your ideas and thoughts with people that want to know what you have to say. The affordances of using a blog in the learning environment allow users to read, write, and comment on someones writing. I can see it as a good tool for reading, collaboration, and feedback. I am a special education resource and inclusion teacher. Most of the students on my caseload have an eligibility of SLD (specific learning disability) in the areas of reading fluency and reading comprehension. So, I can see this being helpful to some and not helpful to others. In addition, I do not see my students every day, and some I only see for a short amount of time. I do not see this being helpful in my classroom.  I can, however, see this as a great way to communicate with parents. At the beginning of the school year, I send out an introduction letter to all of my returning and new parents reintroducing or introducing myself. This would be a good way to give a good introduction and a way to keep them up to date with new things and different resources. The platforms that I played with were Wix and Blogger. I did not find Wix as easy to use as I did Blogger. Wix had a lot of steps to just start using the website. Blogger asked a couple of questions and then you were in. They both are good websites to start and use for blogging. I just preferred one over the other. I am excited to try this out this upcoming school year with the parents. I normally use email and class dojo. I think this will be a more creative and engaging way to communicate. This would be a modification because I am creating a thread of discussion rather than it being just one-on-one. 

TPACK Model

Content: This can give students a different, fun, and engaging way to learn new content and practice content that they need to have more understanding of. 

Pedagogy: Parent involvement 

Technology: It gives parents and students a way to access information digitally.

Some obstacles that I feel I may have are my students finding this difficult to use and adding more stress to them because they do have difficulty with writing and reading. Another obstacle is if the parents do not use it or find it useful. However, if the parents engage I think it would be worth trying for the simple fact of trying something new with communication.