Reflect and Report Blog Post 6

               

Evernote

In this week’s session we were introduced to Evernote, when I signed up for an account on Evernote I was surprised to find out I had already made one at some point. This is something I always do, I create an account with a site or tool and then if I look at it and don’t get it right away I abandon it (not my best quality). However, this did lead me to the realization that I don’t take time to explore new tools. This assignment essentially forced me to learn how to use Evernote. Once I got into it I realized how easy it was I especially like the sharing feature. I always make little documents full of information that I want to share with my peers and it has always been a pain to do so. Evernote has provided me a way to share what I learn and collect with others. The fact that it saves my work automatically is a life saver too.

PLE

Buffy talks about how she introduced Ever note to her class. The overall result they loved it. She even said that a lot of them still were using it a year later. However, my overall opinion of Evernote is that it is a great tool for my professional and academic life, but I would not use it for personal projects. In my PLE I would certainly add Evernote under school and professional but I can’t really see myself adding it to communication or entertainment. I see this tool as having a very specific purpose, which is to share reliable information that will be of use to my peers, not as a creative way to share or collect my ideas. Even though Evernote is easy enough to use it doesn’t quite peak my interest enough to use it for personal projects. Why? I honestly don’t have a good reason, the tool just doesn’t quite fit my tastes.

Feedly

ERIK. (CC) 2014.

This week I found an interesting article on my Feedly reader from The New York Times. This article talks about a new test that has been introduced in parts of America. This test is similar to SAT’s, it’s a way to monitor students susses and evaluate teachers. The reason that this article is interesting is because teachers and parents of these children are taking a stand against the tests. The tests seems to be administered in early elementary school third grade, but preparations for it begin earlier. One issue is that teachers find more time is being spent on test preparation rather than true teaching. The tests are also taken on computers leaving the less wealthy students at a disadvantage if they are not used to computers. However, parents complaints have been the most noticed. The concern is that children are undergoing too many standardized tests. The article continues to describe parents’ personal complaints. At the moment parents are able to have their children opt out of the test. I find this article interesting and suggest that you take a look at it.

I personally think that there is too much standardized testing for students and I don’t think it is helpful or accurate. Test anxiety is very common with students and like the teachers argued students are not receiving true teaching.

What do you think?