This blogfolio was created for IT645: Computers in Education in the summer of 2016. It has my weekly reflections on course content as well as pages exhibiting how my work in this course meets the ISTE Standards. In this reflection I will discuss what I learned in this class, including different learning tools and resources, my strengths and weaknesses in this course, and future learning goals.
What I have learned in this class: In this class I have learned about computers in education in general, specific educational technologies available to teachers, how to create digital instructional resources, the benefits of using technology in the classroom, and so much more. This class gave me the opportunity to explore several different resources that I likely wouldn’t have taken the time to explore (like Scoop.it and ThingLink or making a podcast). I honestly did not know there were so many resources available to teachers. Technology has really created an amazing opportunity for teachers to reach students in ways they could never have imagined. Learning tools used in this class: Google Forms. This was a weirdly simple tool that can be used for any surveys or quizzes. We didn’t connect it to Google analytics, but I imagine that would be extremely helpful to teachers and those who create curriculum. I did notice users cannot print results, but if that is not a necessity, then this tool is great. Google Docs. Of all the collaborative tools I’ve used, this is my favorite. Google Docs is the simplest way to work on a document with others. It allows you to see exactly what others have done, work at the same time, and chat about it on the side. I will definitely use this in the future as a teacher and student for any collaborative papers. Google Slides. As a fan of PowerPoint, I was less excited about Google Slides. While it does allow for collaboration and cloud storage (even though I could upload a PPT in Google Drive just the same), it didn’t have all the functionality I like. For simple presentations, it is a good tool. I likely won’t use it again, but who knows what the future brings. GarageBand. I used GarageBand for the first time to create my podcast. I really liked it once I learned how to use it. I did have to watch several tutorials, but that was mainly because I wanted my podcast to have certain features like multiple sound effects and tempo adjustments. Now that I have the hang of it, I can see myself using it in the future for storytelling or something like that. iMovie. I used iMovie to create my movie story. It was not my favorite. I believe I would like it if I took some time to learn more about it. It seemed better suited for those making movies from photos from digital cameras. Since my images were stock photos from the internet, it was harder to navigate. If I could learn more about this tool, I might use it in the future. I did enjoy uploading to YouTube though. EDpuzzle. This is an amazing tool. I had never seen it before and was amazed at the possibilities. It was very easy to use and I will definitely use it again. I do wish it would allow the use of longer videos. I had to crop out the end of my video to make it work, which was not idea. Because I am a millennial and love commenting on things that are not mine, this tool is perfect. RubiStar. I used RubiStar to create two rubrics. Creating them was very intuitive and resulted in complex and professional-looking rubrics. I wish I knew about this resource in my undergrad studies (Elementary Ed). After using RubiStar, I added it to the Faculty Resources site for curriculum developers at Belhaven. They struggle with creating rubrics, so I think this site will be extremely helpful. I do wish it were possible to mix topics (like parts of “Group Report” and “Digital Presentation”), but downloading both, manually combining and then recalculating is not too hard. Quizizz. This is a quiz-making tool that allows the creators to view and use other users’ quizzes if they want. It’s a smart and simple tool. I liked that I could create my own questions and use one or two from someone else’s quiz. And the quizzes were fun to take! I think I took all of my group’s quizzes. I will remember this tool in the future. ThingLink. This is an interactive image creation tool. It is a great resource for teachers to guide students through websites and other media. I had fun finding my links and connecting them to the image. If I don’t use this in an educational setting, I will be using it for fun. I can see the benefit in paying so that the dots will be invisible. It would be extremely helpful to students learning geography or charts. Or really anything in web/mapping form. Scoop.it. This is a tool to create a curated site of resources (or articles/information) about a specific topic. I think this tool would be more useful to a teacher covering a subject that changes (science, politics, law, etc.). I was unable to use the suggestions feature because there are no current articles/media about Greek mythology…it’s ancient. However, I do like the e-publishing feature. Scoop.it creates a resource page for students and is good because “suggested articles” do not show to the users (like they would in Pinterest). My strengths and weaknesses in this class: My work in learning management systems was helpful in this course. We did not do much in that area, but it was helpful to be familiar with using and creating course pages. My weakness in this course was managing my time. Everyone probably says that. This course was not too much work, but finding time to do it was difficult. I work full time and things usually get stressful during the summer (more people want to take online classes in the summer, so that’s more work). And I spent a while moving into an apartment, so that was a distraction. Because I dropped my second course, I was able to fit in all the work and submit (mostly) everything on time. Future learning goals: For now, my future learning goal is to continue my education in Instructional Technology and learn more about the tools available to teach others. I would like to find resources that would be helpful to the curriculum developers at the school where I work. Also I hope to later use my knowledge in the field of library science and connect the public to these resources.
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Callie is a graduate student of Library Sciences and Information Technology at the University of Southern Mississippi. Blogroll
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