I feel like this class has been a great starting point to help me in the future. Everything we were exposed to can be used in my future classroom or as a tool to help benefit my own personal education experience right now. Some of my favorites were all the different Google applications which I can utilize while working on certain projects or use as a way to connect with my students later. Pretty much everything I could ever need to find or organize can be done via Google. iTunesU also struck me as a good source for papers and research I might need to do later on that would be a little unconventional, but completely useful. I also can see many uses for thing such as podcasts, videocasts, and Google Earth. These are very good educational resources that can really encourage students to enjoy learning which is something I hope to foster later on.
When I first started this class, I thought it was going to be about teaching me how to integrate technoogy into the classroom effectively. Altough this is true, I thought it was going to tell me exactly what to do. Instead I was left to my own devices. This seems like the best approach for the goal of the class. It would have been very easy to have been spoon fed how to integrate technology in the classroom, but it what I would have learned would have been outdated soon. I may have thought that was what the class was about, but I'm much happier that it was different from what my original vision of the class was.
I do not feel like there was anything I learned this semester I plan on dumping starting next week. There are a few things I feel more interested in continuing to loose, but for the long run, I feel like everything might have been beneficial to someone in some way.
This class probably wasn't the most exciting every time I came into class. I thoroughly enjoyed having our guest speakers via Skype. Those were always the most interesting days. Another good thing was that this class was extremely relaxing. It did not bring me any stress so that is definitely comforting to me.
The most difficult thing to understand this semester has been the html scripting. I cannot by any means speak computer. I don't think I ever will. One thing I can do is follow directions. That is the only way I was able to complete some fo the blog assignments. Remembering what to do and how they will benefit someone else was the easy part. Understanding why the html scriping works the way it does is still a question I have yet to find an understandable answer to.
Yes, at times Iwas bored in this class. This mostly happened on days where we did a lot of setting up for a project. Like previewing Google Earth and setting up for our Blogs where we had to click and type specific things. Class became rather montonouss those days. However, despite the montonaity I also appreciated the step by step actions that way I wouldn't have to worry about figuring it all out on my own.
I feel like some of the things that would be most beneficial to me in my teaching career, such as Delicious, ACCESS and ALEX,were only given a slight glance at. Blogging is a very useful tool, but there seem to be other things that could give me so many more brainstorming ideas or creative teaching techniques later on that I might forget about whenever I start teaching because I didn't get a thorough explanation of their uses.
Technologically literate? Not quite there yet. Technologically informed? Definitely. To become technologically literate I feel like I would have to utilize the tools I have been exposed to for a much longer amount of time than how long I have currently been using them.
There are quite a few things we have learned about over the semeste which will be beneifical to me as a student. Hopefully by implementing this knowledge and using it for the rest of my college career I will be better able to use it in the classroom to give out assignments that will be more beneficial to my students.
Technology is constantly changing and there is no way to make things stay the same. The only option is to teach us how to go forth and continue learnine and evolving the classroom as the world around us evolves as well. This is by far the most important thing for me to take away from this class.
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You say (correctly) "Technology is constantly changing and there is no way to make things stay the same." You also write "I thought it was going to be about teaching me how to integrate technoogy into the classroom effectively. Altough this is true, I thought it was going to tell me exactly what to do.'
ReplyDeleteI am surprised you thought the latter given the constant changes in technology!
You are correct when you suggest that you will have to be constantly learning while you are a teacher. NOBODY, in any class, whatever they may claim, can provide you with a cookbook that will work in your classroom. If you try to be a teacher with a prescribed cookbook you will be a failure. You must be inventive, creative, and constantly be prepared for change. Just think about Mr. McClung's comments in At The Teachers Desk or Mr. C's posts on his blog. You NEVER know what to expect next. There is no class, no textbook, no "teacher's handy rule book" that will make your life easy as a teacher. It is your brain, your intuition, your listening skills, your resourcefulness, your contacts (PLN), your willingness to change, to experiment and to reflect on what works and what doesn't that will make you a good or even great teacher! Don't expect to be given answers, whether for integrating technology into classrooms or writing html code. Find the answers and own them yourself. Challenge yourself to learn something new every day. And do it. Challenge your students to do the same! Keep raising that bar! Higher and higher.