Reflective Journal

During my time in my Technology in the Classroom class, I have learned many things about educational technology. Even at the beginning of the class, we discussed what educational technology is (and what it is not). Educational technology is not limited to high-tech gizmos; educational technology is any type of technology that teachers can utilize in the classrooms to aid in learning. This can even include a whiteboard and markers. It can also include the high-tech gizmos, though; of which, I learned a lot about. I learned all about various types of technology that can be used in the classroom – from clickers to Power Point to educational websites. As I learned about how to use these, however, I began to think about WHEN I might use them. I began to reflect upon how accessible computers may be in my classrooms, how much free time my students might have to explore the wonderful sources I discovered, and more. It really got me thinking about the role of educational technology actually in the classroom.

While I did learn a lot about educational technology, I also know that I will face some challenges as a teacher, as I attempt to move from the “familiarization” level to higher levels of technology use. Essentially, expert teachers are experts with technology use. To increase my expertise of technology, I will definitely have to keep learning! Teachers get the luxury of being full-time students, in that we are always learning. In the case of educational technology, teachers must certainly keep up with the times! Even the use of computers in the classroom has changed drastically in the past 10 years. I can only imagine how much different classroom technology may be when I am teaching. I will also need to ensure that I stay updated on the current technology. What good would it be for me to master all of the applications we have gone over in my class, just to forget all of it by the time I am in a classroom? And these are just a couple of the issues that I will face as a teacher in the future.

Of the applications that we have learned about in my class, there are some in which I improved greatly, and there are some that I will still need to improve in. Before this class, I had barely or never worked with Power Point, Movie Maker, Audacity, and more. Through the class, however, I think that I have fairly mastered these applications. I created a Power Point with 3D planets rotating around the sun, a movie with actual video footage of me teaching, and 2 podcasts – one that introduces myself and one that teaches a sample lesson! I enjoyed working with these programs very much, and I do believe that my use of them has improved. However, I think that I would still like to improve in my familiarity with integrating sources. I seemed to have a few issues during the course in mixing my creations – such as posting podcasts or videos in another file to display them. Of course, most of my trouble here was because I had used a newer version of the application to make the file than the application on the school computer that I was working on. This caused some formatting issues, which caused more issues when mixing my files. I think most of the issues I faced could be solved mostly by just using one computer with the same application types, etc. But overall, I did learn a lot from the class that will certainly help me apply technology in the classroom.

Week of Nov. 24

This week we only have class on Tuesday - we are out Thursday for Thanksgiving break! Today we have to turn in our blogs, our reflective journal essay, our Movie Maker assignment, and our Excel exercises (phew). I think that my Movie Maker assignment turned out pretty well. I had fun with it, and I continued my space theme that I've been using all semester. I had never uploaded anything to YouTube before, so I think that doing this assignment helped introduce me to that. I had also never made anything with Movie Maker, which can be a fun tool to make presentations for the class. I know that my grandmother is a college professor (at UAH) who has an online class. For this, she has to make movies of herself giving the lectures to give to the students. Although I am not teaching at a college level, I can see how this would be especially useful in that sense.
The excel exercises seemed very easy...but I spent an entire school year in 7th grade in Keyboarding class, where we learned how to type and how to use basic operating programs like Word and Excel. So I am already very familiar with functions, etc. I also help my parents with their checking system in Excel. My mom is not very computer-savvy, so I formatted the spreadsheet for her so that she only has to plug in the numbers and it calculates everything for her every month.

Week of Nov. 17

This week we worked on Movie Maker and Excel. Tuesday was our last day to turn in our portfolio links. I did this, and I feel pretty good about my webpage (although I did have a lot of formatting issues from using different versions of programs). I have never used Movie Maker or YouTube (for uploading, at least), so this week has a lot of new information for me. The Movie Maker assignment seems pretty cool. And I LOVE that we can skip the final exam if we do well on it! I know I am going to do mine in the same theme I've used all semester - space. It just seems easier that way. Movie Maker seems like a neat application. I think it could definitely be used creatively in classrooms. Excel I have had a lot of experience with already, so I don't think that these exercises should take me too much time.

Week of Nov. 10

Our portfolio deadline got pushed back to the 17th (woohoo), so I actually spent most of my time on finishing mine up and adding the final touches. I'm really happy with how my portfolio is turning out. I hope it will get plenty of good use in the future. We also got introduced to our Movie Maker assignment, which seems pretty interesting to me. I've never used it before, so it seems like it would be very beneficial to me. I'm looking forward to using it more (though right now I'm still concentrating on DreamWeaver!).

Week of Oct. 27

This week we had our second exam, which I did pretty well on. There really wasn't anything on there that I felt uncomfortable with. We mostly just worked on our portfolios...which, thankfully, we have plenty of time to work on. Right now I'm just concentrating on making mine "pretty." I'm setting up links, but I'll actually link the items later. I think that this assignment is one of the most useful ones we will have in this class, as it actually serves us throughout our college life. I'm looking forward to getting it done and seeing how it turns out!

Week of Nov. 3

We did not have class on the 3rd this week, I missed class on the 5th, as I was sick...so I honestly do not have much to report for this week. I mostly just worked on my portfolio more at home. It is due on Thursday of next week, so it's time to start wrapping it up. I already have it looking like I want it to. Now I just need to actually type up the information that goes in it.

Week of Oct. 13

This week we worked on our PowerPoint exercises. I really had fun with this. I decided to make my PowerPoint on the same topic as my podcast lesson - space. There were honestly some things that I wanted to do with it that PowerPower simply does not support (such as a bouncing satellite roaming the screen like a screensaver during the whole presentation)...I asked Mr. Dean about them, but he confirmed that, while it would be neat, PowerPoint just cannot support it. It was all extra stuff, however, so it did not take anything away from my actual presentation. I still had many interactive parts to my presentation, such as orbiting planets (presented in order, with their names) and planets that could fly in and out with information about them. Since our PowerPoint had to be made in kiosk mode, I intended for my PowerPoint to be (hypothetically) used by students individually. I just think that kiosk mode is best used in that capacity, since the students could then control their own pace of learning. It also allows for it to be more interactive.