Blog Post 1

Hey everyone! My name is Zachary Jones, but most people call me Zac. I'm not originally from Florida    - although my dad is - and I've kinda lived everywhere cause my dad is in the military; most recently my family lives in Kentucky. This is my first year at FSU, and I am majoring in Social Science Education. My interests lean on the geeky side: I'm super into comic books, comic book movies, video games, etc. (I'm always happy to gush about my love for comics :D ), as well as most things history. (I much prefer European history tho.)

Since about middle school I've used computers rather often for school. Most of the time we would use laptops (that the school provided) to conduct research or put together slideshows. My high school almost exclusively had us utilize Google programs (Slides, Docs, Sheets, etc.), although we had some classes that taught us how to do basic things with Microsoft Office. While technology was utilized frequently during high school, my technology usage obviously increased during the current pandemic for my last semester, and I got a preview of what college classes would be like online. 

One of my PLNs that I use the most would have to be YouTube videos. More often than not I can find a video that explains a topic that I want to learn more about more concisely and in more detail than if I just googled the subject. A potential risk of YouTube videos is that anyone can create one, and they may not be entirely accurate or truthful during the video, so in addition to watching multiple videos, I do conduct my own research, and I try to go to more reputable websites. Some of my offline PLNs include my teachers (past and present; I try to remain in contact with a couple of my teachers for connections in education and future mentoring), and my peers.