Project #8: Reflections on the Learning Journey of Technology

 Today, children are exposed to technology as early as infancy. The market is flooded with programs for a variety of mediums targeted to parents of infants and toddlers with the claim of giving their children a head start in education.  Older children spend long hours on computer programs, internet and handheld electronic devices for entertainment and learning purposes. By the time, children begin school their brains have been overstimulated and they have grown accustomed to being entertained continuously. This is what teachers are up against when they delivering lessons in the classroom. Teachers need to embrace technology in the classroom in order to engage these technologically advanced students.

EDU 314 has been beneficial to me even though I came into this class with adequate computer skills in using Microsoft Office suite programs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher. The class has improved my computer skills and given me new ideas for my “bag of tricks”. The area in which I learned the most is in web building. I found it easier to build a website in the Nvu program than on the Google sites website. I liked how I could create a separate file for each webpage and then download them to the Cortland Studentweb server. This also made updating the pages simple, by downloading the updated version of the file to the server. Making links to pages were not as challenging as linking files from other programs. It took several attempts and eventually with the help of my professor, to create working links for my Puzzle maker and Digital Story projects.  The Google sites website was a little more difficult to maneuver. One of the areas where I had difficulty was in figuring out how to change the names of the web pages without have to create the whole page over. After trial and error, and clicking on the different tabs on the site I found the page settings link where I was able to change the web pages’ names.  The amount of time I spent searching for the link for changes made Google sites a frustrating experience.  

One project that will be most useful to me as a teacher is Web quest. Creating a web quest for students to use saves on the time spent surfing the web for research information. Webquests can be incorporated into any subject area, especially for language arts, science, or social studies. It directs the students to age appropriate and relevant websites and guide them in an area of study. The Discovery puzzle maker web page is a good resource also; it is useful for making puzzles that can reinforce content.

The digital story project is most meaningful because I can use it for my professional and personal use. The Microsoft Photostory program is user-friendly and it is great for making videos for my lessons. For example, pictures in geography can come to life in a digital story. The best part is that I can make digital stories with my family photos.

Overall, EDU 314 course was beneficial and I did learn new skills that will help me to be an effective teacher in the classroom.