Reflection Blog Week 7

It might be the geek in me, but I am just so excited for all the technology coming into the classrooms nowadays. It's not just that it's easier either, it's just so much more... fun when you've got smart boards and computers and videos and the web to work with.

Though it really is a lot easier, as a student, to pay attention to something other than lectures and textbooks for eight hours a day. Seeing and hearing is one thing, doing—even virtually—is something so completely different.

And the thought of what we don't even have yet, but that we will someday? The iPads and smart boards of tomorrow? I just might explode waiting to see what's coming next. :)

Reflection Blog Week 6

Internet security is a very hot topic for me. Okay, so my training and standards are probably a lot stricter than most people would say is reasonable, but I was in the military and they kind of take that sort of thing seriously.

It helps that I'm kind of a private, introverted person anyway and have always been in the habit of not sharing much of anything truly personal about myself.

Which is not to say that I haven't broken some of the rules, from time to time. I've traveled across the country both directions to meet people in real life that I met on the Internet, but it wasn't a spur of the moment thing and I wouldn't recommend it for just anyone to try.

It's not impossible to meet perfectly nice people on the Internet. But not everyone surfing the web is as friendly and innocuous as your neighbors, either. It takes some caution—which, frankly, in today's world is just as important offline as on.

But that's a topic for another blog, I think. :)

Reflection Blog Week 5

Didn't learn a lot of new tricks this week, but the broadening of my horizons was appreciated anyway. I guess I never really thought of power point presentations as a tool for teachers or students, beyond the obvious of presentations for a report.

The ability to use them as a game format is sort of cool though, as are the pop quiz or polling aspects. Still don't know if I'll make much use of them myself, but it's something to consider, another tool in the box as it were.

Reflection Blog Week 4

Kidspiration is an AWESOME tool. I love it as a teacher for student applications and I love it as a student. It is definitely easier to think about a paper you want to write in a more visual format like that. Then you can convert it to an outline right in the program and you're on your way! I just wish I'd had something like this when I was in high school.

(Which is not to say that the idea of concept maps wasn't introduced, but it seemed like a lot more work the way my teachers explained it then.)

I have mixed feelings about Picasa. As a regular person and a techie, I can see the benefit of uploading pictures to the web for sharing with family and friends, and I do like the desktop organization, but the former US Navy sailor in me screams at the security aspects of such a public display. Government instilled paranoia will probably keep me from ever using such a site for any truly personal photos—you'll probably see mostly my dog or general nature images for assignments—but for other images it might be quite useful indeed.

Reflection Blog Week 3

Another week of great resources to bookmark for later! I think my favorite had to be the eMedia website with the video links to Bill Nye episodes! Maybe not entirely scientifically correct anymore in some cases, but Bill Nye still makes learning about science fun and interesting. :)

Now, by the time I become a teacher with my own classroom, those might be dated and seem just as lame as the videos I had to watch in school, but the idea of using good videos to enrich learning is unlikely to ever really become passé--even if showing them in only two dimensions does. ;)

I also love the idea of having the students create their own websites. They say that teaching others is a great way to learn it yourself and doing it this way has so many benefits! You're teaching others, you're learning multiple disciplines at one time (web design and technology as well as the base subject), and you're reaching out to interact with the world in a meaningful way, building bridges of friendship and understanding that span the globe.And you're doing it all right NOW. The closest I ever got to this sort of thing in elementary school was sending letters via snail mail to a penpal in another state.

Reflection Blog Week 2

It must be the classes you take during block that make it hard or not. So far this one is looking to be a definite 'not', which is awesome.

I actually spent more time in class this week helping my fellow students than actually learning anything new myself, but that's okay. It's a class for future teachers, right? Seems like a perfect way to spend the class if the material being covered is stuff I already know. :)

Which is not to say that I haven't gotten anything out of it purely for my own edification. The wealth of resources and links I've added to my bookmarks folder alone makes it worth showing up and paying attention.

Plus there's the added bonus of creating webpages that will either be useful as they are, or serve as time-saving templates for my own classes in the future. Either way it's a win-win situation.

So far this class is my 'relaxing' class. Not in that I can just sit back and do nothing, but in that I don't have to stress about it and it's more fun than work. It brings a nice balance and I think I'll be quite sad when it ends. :(

Reflection Blog Week 1

So I'm taking this class. Computers in Education.

It's a block, which scares the bejeebies out of me because I've been told that requires an amount of discipline I'm not sure I'm capable of. Though now that one class is behind us, I'm a little less worried.

After a lifetime of self-directed computer geekery—and then five years with government sanction in the Navy--I think it's safe to say I'm on the tech-savvy end of the scale. That will certainly simplify things in one regard as I don't know that I'll be required to learn a lot about the how of computers in education. I've probably got most of those bits down already, though I might find some refinement in areas. That would be exciting and my little geeky heart cheers at the prospect.

On the education side of things, I am quite excited to be exploring new areas. I'm sure every generation says this, but to see kids using this latest technological leap like it's always been there is amazing to me and I can't wait to train up these future geeks in the ways of computer magic.

Other thoughts on the class? Well, having a four page paper assigned the first day of class is nothing new, though having it due the second day is. Happily, writing is another skill I count among my talents so I'm not freaking out as much as I'm sure some of my classmates are.

Overall, I'm far less worried about my success this class than I was before the first day, and far more excited about what's coming down the line.