Course Reflection

I have learned a great deal in this class. My experience with computers was above average before starting this class, and now I have learned many more new things. The course introduced me to programs and websites I had never used before. This new knowledge will be very helpful throughout my teaching career as well as in my personal life.
The only shortcomings I had with this class was with the My Story Assignment. It took me a lot longer to figure out how the program worked than usual. I eventually was able to put it together the way I wanted it to be, though. I had a lot of fun doing most of the assignments, as well.
The interaction between students was interesting for an online class. I work with one of the assistants in these classes, and it helps a lot to have contact with classmates. All of the assistants in the program are very helpful, and it’s nice to relate more with the majority of my classmates.
I used the email communication tool the most. Emails are very functional because you don’t need or have to give immediate feedback. Emails work great for a busy lifestyle, and it can be read and looked back on later. I never used the chatroom, because no one has the same schedules to be able to communicate as directly as chatrooms or the live classroom. Discussion boards are a lot like an email in that it can be an ongoing conversation without time being a problem. It also has the benefit of other people being able to look at the conversation and get something out of it.
I anticipated this class to be my least favorite at the beginning of the semester, but it has become my favorite. I am very interested in the various ways technology can be used in my teaching. I want the best for my students and want to give them as much as I can. After taking this course, I believe technology is going to be a key factor in making my goals easily reached. I thoroughly enjoyed this course.

Further Learning

I hope to continue learning new ways to use technology in my classroom. Technology is steadily advancing, and there are constantly new programs and tools to make education better. As a teacher, time is of the essence. Technology helps make certain tasks less time-consuming. I will continue to use and find new ways to enhance my lessons and use my time wisely.

Assistive Technology

Google Doc was another great way to interact with coworkers without having to schedule meeting times between more than one busy schedule. The great thing about the document was that all members could be working on it together from other computers. This is very important when it comes to collaborative teaching efforts.
This tool would be a great way to plan lessons with fellow teachers. The lessons could be broken down into sections and each teacher could do an equal part of the work; therefore, everyone involved will have plenty of time to do their best work. Also, collaborative efforts usually result in very effective lesson plans and overall teaching success.

Google Doc

Web Site

I loved the web site creator in Google. It wasn't all that complicated to create a web site like I've always thought. I encountered minor problems. Basically, these problems arose from my own inexperience with the program.
I think it is very important to have parent involvement, and a web site and email are the best ways to accomplish this. Parents are busy, as are teachers, and setting up conferences can be almost impossible with conflicting schedules. A web site gives parents an insight into what their children do all day. It also gives them the option to get involved or give input to their child's classroom.
A web site will be a part of my classroom. It is a great way to interact with parents and help parents understand the importance of at home assignments among many other things.
Web sites can also help fellow educators and give options for improvement by viewing other teachers ideas. I think parents would like to see inside other classrooms to know that their child is in a great learning environment based on the average classroom of that age group.

Web Site

Turn It In

Turn It In is a great website for teachers who are grading papers. I hope to teach kindergarten, so it may not be as useful to me in the future; but, it is definitely something to know about and have access to. It would be much easier to use this online tool than checking students' individual sources.
Although the assignment was about showing us a helpful tool, I learned more than just that. The subject of the paper was interesting too. A gender gap in technology is not something I've put much thought into, but I am more aware of it now.
As a teacher, I have an opportunity to help make a change in this gap. I also have an opportunity to save lots of time checking for plagiarism thanks to the Web Tools assignment.


TurnItIn

Web Tools

The Web Tools assignment was a great eye-opener to a few different internet tools. I personally liked the rubric and test maker sites the best. Anything that will take a few extra steps out of creating a document is worth using. As a teacher, time is of the essence. It was very nice to make a multiple choice test so quickly, and the format was great!
Also, the rubric creator was nice too. Rubrics are typically about the same depending on the grade level and subject. Once again, saving steps on formatting and actually creating the document is a welcomed tool.
The bookmark wasn't as impressive. I would rather have a plain, printed list of websites I need to remember than use a special tool to make it. It wasn't as user-friendly as other online tools have been throughout the semester, either.
Overall, the Web Tools assignment gave me two tools that I will be able to use in the future.

TrackStar
Rubric
Quiz

Google Group

Google Groups is a very interesting and useful tool for anyone who needs to work closely with people who are not physically close. Any number of people could share ideas and work on a project together without worrying about setting up times or meeting places. As a future educator, this tool could be used when planning lessons grade-wide.
Teachers could use it to plan future lessons and look back at old ones. It would be easy to document any problems or successes and be able to access them as a grade level very easily. The only problem encountered during this project was just like any other group project, participation.
As the deadline approached, I noticed everything wasn't completed. Without meeting times, this will always be a possibility. People get busy and forget when they feel like they have plenty of time to do something. The program itself was very easy to use and fairly self-explanatory.
I would love to use it again with coworkers to collaborate on projects, lessons, and any other efforts that would require or benefit from more than one brain. Google Groups gives access to a lot of information without having to spend so much time looking for it.

Google Group Assignment

My Story Assignment

I found that Windows Movie Maker was fairly easy to use. There were a few things I wanted to do with my movie that I was not able to do with it, but it was easy to figure out how to do the things that needed to be done to complete the assignment. I encountered one problem, the audio. I couldn't get my recorder to work properly; instead, I put text on each page telling what the picture represented.
I would rather use Power Point over Movie Maker for a presentation in my classroom. It was a good experience to learn a new program and to know it is there if I decide to use it. I am also unable to attach the video to my post. I am only going to be able to email it to the professor instead.

Inspiration 8.0

Inspiration 8.0 is a very interesting program. I understand the usefulness of concept mapping, but I'm not sure that I would spend so much time organizing an assignment that way. The most important thing when designing a concept map is that it is useful to the teacher and the students. I'm an arts and crafts person. Personally, I would rather make a poster that can be 3-D, glittery, and imperfect. Visual aids are a very important part of any lesson for elementary students. I would prefer creating my own over using the program. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted my concept map to look like, but no matter how I tried to link my nodes together, it didn't come out right. I could've spent less time on a poster board, and it would have been organized the way I saw it in my head. It also would've been more visually appealing to students.
I think Inspiration 8.0 is a useful tool, but I don't think it was something I'd use repeatedly. It's always nice to learn something new and to know there is a program out there to help create documents like that. I didn't find the program very hard to use. I did, however, take a few minutes to look some of the features before getting started.

Concept Map

Education

I'm new to blogging! This blog is going to be used as a reflection to document what I learn throughout the semester in IT 465. I will have my assignments attached to each blog as well as a brief description about what I liked and/or disliked about the assignment.
I will be able to look back on each blog and remember what each assignment was about and how I benefited from it.