Final Reflection

Please write a final reflection report posting in your blog which include:


What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I thought that social bookmarking was a really interesting activity. Just the amount of information you could place there, and the helpful way you and people you know can share information makes it a very useful tool for teachers. It's just a quick way of accessing information and finding new information that may be useful for you. I think it just makes sharing information all the more easy to do, and you can browse at your leisure, and find things that you think will fit in with what you are teaching. It's not a one time thing, it's something you can add to, and update, and cross reference and scaffold with. I really thought it was interesting and it is something I certainly see myself utilizing in my classroom.

How has this course assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
This course has helped me find an application for technology in the classroom, and has helped catch me up with some of the newer developments in web 2.0. I liked the explanations and the way the websites were walked through with you, but then you also had time to experiment and set things up for yourself. It wasn't just a theory course, I liked that you had to put it into practice. Through doing things this way, I really began to see that I can learn how to do things like this, and it can be pretty easy. I also found things that can be of legitimate use to me in the classroom, so staying abreast with the latest developments is certainly worthwhile.


Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this course that surprised you?
I think that the main thing that surprised me was how well each different type of learning tool was explained, yet, at the same time, how minimally it needed to be explained. There didn't seem to be much of a learning curve, they were certainly for the most part what I would term as user-friendly. I think a lot of the intimidation factor has been taken out of learning what the newer technologies have to offer. I feel like I certainly have much more of an "I can" attitude now.

What could we do differently to improve upon this course’s format or concept?
I understand that you need to interact with your classmates... but I know that with working 40 plus hours a week, plus trying to maintain some sort of workout program over the summer, it was very hard for me to log on early in the week. I had time, but it seemed like I kind of had to drag myself online. I wish that I didn't feel pressured so much to try to log on early in the week, and I could view things a bit more at my leisure. Again, I don't think that there was undue pressure to do this, but that would be my only complaint, minor though it may be.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

Certainly. I found it to be very useful, and I can see the direct tie-in with what I do in the classroom. I like how this wasn't just a theory course, I had to put things into practice, so I couldn't essentially just fake my way through the course, I really had to work on things, and figure out different technologies (and remember passwords!) I thought it was a very effective course and it is something I'm very glad I took. At first I was hesitant to take the course, as I'm not always very confident in my computing abilities. But, now that I have taken it, I see that it was exactly a course like this that I needed to help me. Very useful, and I think I could benefit from another discovery program like this in the same vein.