Final Blog Post

1. I learned so much from this class! I learned how to make a podcast, how to use Google as an organizing tool and e-mail address; I also learned how to download videos from my iPod to the computer. This class has challenged me to learn how to use all these different kinds of technology and has shown me that I can use it on my class! I learned about the different tools like ACCESS and ALEX that will help my students become better students and I learned of websites that will help me become a better teacher. I now know why Wikipedia isn't a trustworthy site to go to for academic writing. I also learned how to use Google Earth which can be useful for me, when I become an English teacher, to show my students where the story we are reading takes place. Outside of this class I learned more about the Smart Board and how it helps teachers reach their students.

2.I would have LOVED to learn how to set up a Smart Board lesson and given it to the students at Burns Middle School when I go visit my old teachers, Mr. Berg and Mrs. Mattern.

3.I don't think there is anything that I have learned that I would wish to unlearn.

4.One of the things that excited me in this class was knowing that one day I would get to use this technology to teach students one day. The one piece of technology that excited me the most was the voice thread. This will be very useful I think in my classroom. Students can have the opportunity to explain poems or stories in their own words. This could make a very good poetry project for them.

5. I found the Google Earth project to be the second most intellectually challenging thing because I could not figure out how to upload it. I went step by step but somewhere along the way I got lost. The most intellectually challenging thing for me though was the Interview project. Not the interview itself but figuring out all the different things I needed to upload the video from my camera to the computer and from the computer to the internet! This was no one fault at all. It seems that the camera, computer, and internet were all bound and determined to outsmart me (thankfully I won!).

6.I did not find this class boring at all.

7. I did not find this course to have necessarily "too much" work as I found it to have too few deadlines. I do not feel like my work load was too much, on the contrary I feel like if I hadn't have learned everything that I did, I would have been cheated. I did find the deadlines very challenging and almost impossible in some cases. Now granted some deadlines were extended to the same date and that just magnified the problem. I just didn't understand why two very big projects were due back to back, both very involved and a lot of hard work. I think if the deadlines were further apart with just two or three things (one bug project and one or two smaller ones) due at once it would make things easier. I also believe that giving us the number of the weeks that the projects were due was very confusing. I have no idea what week of school I'm in, only the date. Plus the dates were off on the weeks after spring break, that really confused me. I also, think that more guidance should have been given on some of the smaller projects. Take the survey for instance, on the syllabus it said "Make a survey." and that was all it said. Okay... What kind of survey? How many questions? etc. If you don't care then put on the syllabus "Make a survey on what ever you please." Then tell us the minimum amount of questions you would like on it. I had surveys with one question and surveys with twenty questions. Will the ones who gave a survey with one question get as good of a grade as the ones who made a survey with twenty? According to the criteria in the syllabus they will... My last point is the grading process. Now I understand you do not believe in grades but nonetheless, a grade must be given at the end of this course. I personally did not find the surveys you sent out to be very helpful in figuring out my grade. If I don't have an A what do I have? An F? How is that fair? Is this class only a pass or fail class? If so I was not informed and feel a little cheated for not being so. I also believe that maybe you should make our grade available to us if we ask for it. Don't refer us to the syllabus because obviously, if we are asking you we don't completely understand. We are asking you for a reason, we want to hear you say it.

8.I believe I am more technologically literate than when I walked into this classroom. I can now set up podcasts, Google documents, and I have also learned many different things about education and the internet. I am not sure how literate I really am but since you asked I would say I am moderately literate with technology. I know I have a lot more to learn. I can't wait to get started!

9.I will maintain and improve my literacy between now and my time to teach and after I begin teaching by using my PLN and finding new websites and web tools that will help me keep my students interested in my classroom.