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. :)
