I have gained so much knowledge in such a short period of time and this knowledge base will be with me until. As I walked in the door for the first time, I pondered the thought of 'just what is this class about'? And we're off to a fast start, I'm hearing terms that are foreign to me. Terms such as Delicious, Firefox and others all thrown at the class, also terms such as blog, video casts, and technological illiteracy. At the mention of technological illiteracy I think this is me. But no more, my knowledge base of the means of communication has drastically changed. After being introduced to blogging I saw a whole new world, adults and children sharing thoughts and knowledge.
At the beginning I was taught many things about Google and the applications that are available, not just spreadsheets and forms, but iGoogle home page with its RSS feeds to any website, blog, ect. I need. There is also Google Reader, another convenient forum of all the blogs and news feeds that I follow. I had looked at Google Earth before we used it in class, but it is interesting to look at your own neighborhood from on high, and I left my personal tag on one of the surveyor satellites on the moon. If you're bored, can you find it?
After watching and commenting of quite a few podcasts, it was time for me to present one. With directions from Doc Strange, I presented my first
podcast, and I was seeing a new avenue of communication, one where I could post a video on
YouTube and leave it for the whole world to see. Two sites I was glad to see were
ACCESS and
the Alabama Learning Exchange , both sites are geared toward connecting classrooms and the indexing and sharing of educational material. If Alabama could connect all of its classrooms, we would see a great change in out state, and as a future educator, what better thing to work toward.
One of the items we discussed in class was
Foliotek, and even though we as students will not see much of it, I took the time to see exactly what Foliotek is. It is a system that allows our educators and administrators to see us individually and collectively as students and this system allows them to make assessments about us and the school system.
Now, do I consider myself a professional, certainly I do. Every different field I've worked in, I've always tried to do my best, to learn as much as I could in the field and be on time. I am certain nothing will change in my endeavors to become a math teacher.
As to the future of our schools, with the help and input of the ACCESS and Alabama Learning Exchange I hope Alabamas school system has a very bright future. I know that rural areas tend to not get as much funding as bigger school systems, but with Skyping and blogging and the sharing of the learning experience, I hope that the mixing of two different cultures, well off and not so well off, can grow up together in a learning environment that is lacking in social order, but rich in intellectual harmony.
You know, after some reflection, I really don't know if there is anything else I would have wanted to learn in this class. There is so much at my disposal now so that I have many tools available to me to become familiar with in the future. Dr. Stranges class has been a constant stream on information of communication. Not just local, no, global communication that can be fast paced and fun, as well as being informative. I won't say I was 'intellectually challenged', but the class was intellectually stimulating the entire time. Every system and application was new to me and each required its own time to learn. I have spent
hours on the keyboard learning new things, so, I can't say I was excited, but, it was all fun from the beginning. I really like my new knowledge base. As far as changing the course in some way, I really don't know, maybe spend no time on Twitter, or barely mention it, and spend more time on connecting with another class somewhere. I remember we as a class, had a hard time with the anonymous survey, so spend a little more time on the basics of Google forms and their uses, just a little more time to see if it's worth having your students be faster at using Google apps. Don't use class time on Google Earth, it's somewhat entertaining, but it's really only useful to see where your assigned blog class is located, not much more for your class.
The question is put to me, "Am I Technologically Literate at the moment?", and the answer is a resounding "YES I Am". There are many avenues available to me now, both as a student and as a future educator. I look forward to the months ahead at the College of Education, and to the future career of molding young minds. There has been so much to say about this class, but, it too, must end. Adieu.
