5. Think about this Course

Where do I begin? I will be honest. While signing up for college classes, I was excited to learn that there were no TESTS in this course! I thought..."woo-hoo this is going to be easy." However, after reading the syllabus and seeing all the words I didn't know what they meant--it was a bit overwhelming. I will say that it probably wouldn't have been quite so jam-packed and overwhelming if it hadn't been for a summer class. I did learn a lot, although I wasn't sure I was going to be able to.

One of the most interesting assignments I thought was the interview a teacher assignment. Not only were we able to talk freely with someone we felt comfortable with, we were also learning. It was interesting for me to hear my high school friend talk about her job and what she liked about technology, etc. It was also good to know how different her school is now than our school was in high school or other schools that I am aware of. It's amazing to note how each different school is on a different level in terms of technology.

Web 2.0 was a link that I came to enjoy. At first I was hesitant because it felt like a lot to keep track of and I was nervous I would miss something and not get a grade. But after I learned that this class wasn't to stuck on the "grade" more so the "exploration," I calmed down. Web 2.0 was nice because we were able to easily interate with others. I found it odd that this past weekend my dad told me that he liked my Rain Forest Lesson Plan. How weird that he was a "teacher from the trenches" and was able to look at my work!!

Social bookmarking was also good to know. I didn't know about del.icio.us before and really didn't know what social bookmarking was all about. After learning about it and setting up my own del.icio.us site, I realize that it will be helpful to me as a continued student and also as a teacher one day. I like the concept of being able to share your bookmarking site as well.

I'm still undecided about the podcasts. I didn't know what podcasts were before, so learning about them was helpful. However, I'm still not convinced that I like the whole learning via podcast theory. I really have a hard time focusing and it's difficult for me to try to listen and know what's going on. The concept of being able to listen to a podcast while doing dishes is awesome, but it simply doesn't work for me. BUT...the idea of being able to reach THOUSANDS of people at a time via the podcast is unreal!!!

Quia was also an assignment that I learned from. It was fun to be able to go into the site and create a quiz or an assignment for students. Using Quia really gave us an idea as to what teachers go through in terms of standards & etc. when dealing with a lesson plan. Lesson plans are going to be hard work and with sources such as Quia, I think they can be made a little easier and user friendly.