Its coming to that time of seeing where I stand. This reflection is my 'big picture' blog. Now we have one class left and then the midterm. I have learned a lot but I will soon see if I have absorbed it at all. We played some review games today in class and I think it outlined where I needed most to study...turns out its all of it. This came a blow to my confidence going into the final. I had expected that I had stayed up to date with assignments and content...I guess not. Well its a good thing that the exam isn't until the 21st. That gives me enough time to brush up on all the areas that are specifically outlined in the study guide. I find it really hard to use the text book. I know it must be hard to create a user friendly textbook in print for a primarily online based course.
Since my last post it seems like I have been just as busy. It was definately a huge relief to finish up the presentation, but when we had that presentation in mind, my group helped me a lot in staying focused, and aiding my mind in thinking 'EDIT' based thoughts. :)
With the end of this semester in mind, Im happy to finish up on one side, but then on the other side, I find that without constantly up keeping these skills, they will drift ouyt of my mind pretty quickly. That scares me a little. Technology isn't my strong point, and I still don't feel like it is. Being in this class, there is help available that I don't have to go on google to get. I have learned a lot, and I really hoop everything doesn't change too much until whenI finally become a teacher. I know this is unreasonable to hope for, but Im still going for it anyways.
I found working with excel very frustrating. I have used it before this class and felt the same when then as I do now. I am not a very patient person, and excel tests my patience with every step. I had to use it with our cattle herd book and also in my micro and macro economics classes. Not a fan of it then, and still not great with it, but it is useful so thats one area I will definately work on in the future.
This semester I have been learning beginner guitar with my cousin and uncle...so many of the times during our sessions, I have used tools that we have learned in this class. I defiantely feel more technology literate now. Thanks EDIT 302
-cheesey closing but oh well.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
February has come and gone already
Time is flying by these days, February has already come and gone,we are already into March, and this Winter semester is drawing quickly to a close. Since my last post, we have gotten our Portfolios up to this point marked and written our midterm.
I was pretty happy with my Portfolio mark because I have struggled with the stuff we have done a little and the feedback on my mark was both a help for the future and to correct any mistakes that I made, and it was also an encouragment that I'm not doing quite as bad as I thought I would. There are many places that this portfolio will be helpful, so with a little bit of work here and there I can fix it up and better show my capabilites in this area. I really have enjoyed some of the pieces we have done, and there have been some frustrating pieces but I can see the merit in both. I really enjoyed watching the other videos the class had made, some of them were really funny.
With the midterm I had no idea what to expect going in. That sounds bad because we were given a very clear description and outline of exactly what was going to be on it. What I mean when I say I had no idea what to expect going into it, well I mean each teacher is different in their exam styles, and also this class is a technology class so it was hard for me to imagine the possible questions. When I looked over the textbook it seemed pretty basic and self explanitory, but there is a lot in ten chapters and as I have previously mentioned, I procrastinate a lot, so as usual I left my studying to be done last minute and kindof half heartedly unfortunately.
It really feels good to be done the presentation now, a lot of stress off my shoulders. I feel that it went pretty good, Im quite a nervous public speaker (despite a lot of practise) and so I was a bit of a wreck going into it, and throughout. We all put in a lot of effort and practised to get it just right. Of course its never exactly the same in a little room vrs in front of a class full of your peers but Im still happy how things went. I was really impressed by the group that went first, there are so many things that can go wrong and they experienced quite a few of them but they soldiered through it like champions. They had the topic i had originally wanted to do but it filled up pretty quickly. It was really interesting and they did a good job. Its definately a hot topic.
Its been a quick and interesting couple of months so far and the rest of the time is going to fly by. :)
I was pretty happy with my Portfolio mark because I have struggled with the stuff we have done a little and the feedback on my mark was both a help for the future and to correct any mistakes that I made, and it was also an encouragment that I'm not doing quite as bad as I thought I would. There are many places that this portfolio will be helpful, so with a little bit of work here and there I can fix it up and better show my capabilites in this area. I really have enjoyed some of the pieces we have done, and there have been some frustrating pieces but I can see the merit in both. I really enjoyed watching the other videos the class had made, some of them were really funny.
With the midterm I had no idea what to expect going in. That sounds bad because we were given a very clear description and outline of exactly what was going to be on it. What I mean when I say I had no idea what to expect going into it, well I mean each teacher is different in their exam styles, and also this class is a technology class so it was hard for me to imagine the possible questions. When I looked over the textbook it seemed pretty basic and self explanitory, but there is a lot in ten chapters and as I have previously mentioned, I procrastinate a lot, so as usual I left my studying to be done last minute and kindof half heartedly unfortunately.
It really feels good to be done the presentation now, a lot of stress off my shoulders. I feel that it went pretty good, Im quite a nervous public speaker (despite a lot of practise) and so I was a bit of a wreck going into it, and throughout. We all put in a lot of effort and practised to get it just right. Of course its never exactly the same in a little room vrs in front of a class full of your peers but Im still happy how things went. I was really impressed by the group that went first, there are so many things that can go wrong and they experienced quite a few of them but they soldiered through it like champions. They had the topic i had originally wanted to do but it filled up pretty quickly. It was really interesting and they did a good job. Its definately a hot topic.
Its been a quick and interesting couple of months so far and the rest of the time is going to fly by. :)
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Reflective Log #1
Hey EDIT 302,
This is my first time using a blog, sorry in advance. This class has given me many chances to use technology as a first time user. Before this class I had never used blogger, bubblus, graphic organizers from microsoft and many others we have used in this class. Being a first time user for most of these tools has been somewhat frustrating, but also interesting and hopefully wil prove to be useful throughout this course and into my career.
Frustrations such as the accelerated pace, changing websites, and technology's devotion to failing at the worst times possible have made my introduction to many of these tools a tad annoying. Onto happier blog thoughts, a lot of these tools are really useful and pretty neat once you get the hang of them. The short learning period for these tools is nothing when you have finally grasped the concept and the 'how to' part.
I have also appreciated learning real life career uses for these in classroom situations and various scenarios. These tools give everyone a better chance at learning, and create a more lively and fun learning environment. The old direct method of teaching still holds merit, but does not trump these new learner driven methods. Each classroom needs to use a bit of both, depending on the course. Yesterday when we were learning about WEB 2.0 we were told some advantages of technology in a classroom that I had not even thought about. Example of this: Having subtitles is good for hearing impaired, places where volume control is an issue and also for those learning a second language. From that it was said that if you make things broad enough to work for everyone, they will have uses that you won't have thought of.
Honstly speaking, when I heard this class was going to be 3 hours, every Tuesday and Wednesday evening, I was not very impressed or excited. Three hours is a big change from my usual 50 minute classes that I have become accustom to so far this year. The thought of sitting in a classroom for 3 hours is much more daunting than actually doing it.
The presentations yesterday were really well done; its really hard to go first and stand in front of a group of people, all of which have facebook and the world wide web at their fingertips and countless other bits of technology to devote their focus to, so for this reason I'm glad that those 2 groups that went yesterday took the initial sting out of it for me. Also, I do not present with my group until March, so this will give our group a lot of advice and tips for our presentation.
Well, my first blog entry is drawing to a close, this has been interesting and somewhat liberating.
Bye for now EDIT 302. :)
This is my first time using a blog, sorry in advance. This class has given me many chances to use technology as a first time user. Before this class I had never used blogger, bubblus, graphic organizers from microsoft and many others we have used in this class. Being a first time user for most of these tools has been somewhat frustrating, but also interesting and hopefully wil prove to be useful throughout this course and into my career.
Frustrations such as the accelerated pace, changing websites, and technology's devotion to failing at the worst times possible have made my introduction to many of these tools a tad annoying. Onto happier blog thoughts, a lot of these tools are really useful and pretty neat once you get the hang of them. The short learning period for these tools is nothing when you have finally grasped the concept and the 'how to' part.
I have also appreciated learning real life career uses for these in classroom situations and various scenarios. These tools give everyone a better chance at learning, and create a more lively and fun learning environment. The old direct method of teaching still holds merit, but does not trump these new learner driven methods. Each classroom needs to use a bit of both, depending on the course. Yesterday when we were learning about WEB 2.0 we were told some advantages of technology in a classroom that I had not even thought about. Example of this: Having subtitles is good for hearing impaired, places where volume control is an issue and also for those learning a second language. From that it was said that if you make things broad enough to work for everyone, they will have uses that you won't have thought of.
Honstly speaking, when I heard this class was going to be 3 hours, every Tuesday and Wednesday evening, I was not very impressed or excited. Three hours is a big change from my usual 50 minute classes that I have become accustom to so far this year. The thought of sitting in a classroom for 3 hours is much more daunting than actually doing it.
The presentations yesterday were really well done; its really hard to go first and stand in front of a group of people, all of which have facebook and the world wide web at their fingertips and countless other bits of technology to devote their focus to, so for this reason I'm glad that those 2 groups that went yesterday took the initial sting out of it for me. Also, I do not present with my group until March, so this will give our group a lot of advice and tips for our presentation.
Well, my first blog entry is drawing to a close, this has been interesting and somewhat liberating.
Bye for now EDIT 302. :)
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