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Blog 3 Topic (EDUC 630)

As a mathematics professor at a publicly funded community college, personal social media has basically no place in my classroom.  There is a very delicate legal issue with using social media in the classroom.  Personal social media accounts should never be used to interact with students at any level of education.  If a teacher or professor would like to use something like Twitter or Facebook to interact with their students, then they should absolutely make a separate professional account that is used exclusively for educational purposes.  While this may seem like a hindrance, it is necessary for both the teacher’s and students’ protection.  While I have seen some educators use Twitter or Facebook groups to stay connected with students outside the classroom, the potential lawsuit risks far outweigh the benefits.  I personally do not see any reason to use social media for education, because there are professional platforms that are able to do everything that...
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Blog 2 Topic (EDUC 630)

PowerPoint is a powerful presentation software that is part of the Microsoft Office package.  The vast majority of the business and education world uses Microsoft Windows and Office.  Therefore, PowerPoint is the most widely used presentation software in American classrooms.  Since so many people use it, there are many examples of both good and bad presentations.  A great PowerPoint presentation has a limited amount of text on each, informative graphics, visually appealing layout, and smooth transitions.  A bad PowerPoint presentation is easy to spot.  Things like giant walls of text, awkward looking color schemes, overly abused slide animations, and too many meaningless pictures.  To create an effective PowerPoint, one should try to make use of text as efficiently as possible.  Concise text that conveys your basic point is more easily digested by the audience.  Stay away from colored text and backgrounds that clash to make for a horrible vi...
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Blog 1 Topic (EDUC 630)

Blog 1 Topic As technology continues to advance, it is important to consider the implications it will have on modern classrooms.  In an ideal world, new technologies would automatically be integrated into classrooms in the most optimal way.  Realistically, there are several barriers that may prevent true integration from happening.  One of the most prominent barriers is money.  Many schools simply do not have the funding necessary to implement new technology tools in their classrooms.  Another barrier is the teacher's technological competency.  While the good teachers are able to learn and implement helpful new technologies in their classes, there are other teachers who cannot or will not adopt these new tools.  A third barrier to technological integration may be the technological savvy of the students.  Not all students have had access to or experience with technologies at the same level.  So some students may be able to quickly take adv...
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Introduction

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My name is Paul Canepa, and I live in Newark, DE. I enjoy using almost all types of technology!  I use use tablets, smart phones, laptops, desktops, and gaming systems in my free time.  Several of these technologies are also useful at work.  I am currently a Tenured Associate Professor of Mathematics.  I teach both traditional classroom and online courses every semester.  Some of the more professional technologies am I proficient with include, Canvas, Sakai, WebAssign, MyMathLab, MyLabsPlus, WileyPlus, Mathematica, Matlab, LaTeX, Google Docs, Google Sheets, GoogleDrive, OneDrive, Dropbox, SmartBoard, SmartPodium, Document Cameras, and Copy Machines that need to be unjammed!   Wolframalpha.com is one of my favorite websites as a mathematics professor.   This amazing site runs on the Mathematica platform.   It is incredibly powerful and can do much more than just mathematics.   For example, you can type in “toast + orange juice” and it wi...
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