Taking this course definitely opened my eyes to the "new" Web around me that I never considered. I never would have imagined I would have my own Blog, or be tagging my own websites for other educators to look at. There were many different skills that I learned to use that I never would have thought about and am lucky I do now. Using delicious for example, what a great tool for educators! I've shown it to many of my friends (who are educators) and they love it. The way that we can all look at and share different educational websites is a tremendous asset. Sometimes when working on lessons, or looking for new ideas the Internet is like a messy cupboard in your house. You may find things that interest you or seem useful at some point in the future, but not at this moment. Those are the web pages that eat you up as an educator when you are looking for new ideas and have a fading memory of a website you stumbled across but can't find now. With delicious I can save those webpages and it does not become a large list that defeats the purpose of saving them to start with.
Another interesting part to this journey is now how cognizant I am of the intricacies that go into Web Design. For only a few hours a week I became a Web Designer and I was not what I would call "gifted". It only then gives me an appreciation for large scale websites that have loads of information but are still easy to navigate. There is an unsaid art to that ease of access that until you try your hand at it, you don't appreciate.
Many of my life-long goals were altered in this course because I want to be a technology savvy teacher. I really thought that simply knowing how to use Microsoft Excell, or Powerpoint meant I had the tools I need to bring technology into the classroom. I was completely in over-my-head and wrong when thinking that's all it takes to know how to bring technology to a room full of students. I will have to make a conscious effort to continue to blog, make site lists, and safe bookmarks for my students and learn how to guide my students along the "Information Superhighway".
A huge outcome from this course that I did not expect to have was a critical view of the Internet. I simply viewed the Internet as a means for recreation and did not take seriously it's educational implications. The many ways that teachers are using the Internet now to bring course material to life is absolutely amazing. Seeing websites like GoogleScholar, or TeacherTube really sends this message home. The many different ways that the Internet can be used to increase education not limit it, is astounding. I remember when I first heard people talking about using the Internet in classrooms I was skeptical and apprehensive. All I envisioned was a room full of teenage boys searching for things that they shouldn't be and me receiving an Inbox full of furious parents. However, using some of the tools we have discussed in this course those fears and apprehensions I was had a rapidly disappearing.
There are always many great positives in a course but also negatives. I think the layout of this course runs fine aside form the discussion forum. The discussion forum through Angel seems so primitive and lackluster when compared to all the exciting new tools we research and use in the course. It is like reading about the Internet and all the great things we can do and then being assigned to write an essay on it with a pen and paper. I feel like the discussion aspect really bridles our creativity and the means of expression that we can use for something as fun and new as the content of this course. Perhaps an entire classroom blog or something would be better, but it seems so fragmented when our only interaction with our peers are through writing prompts on a discussion board. There is not a definitive answer to this problem however, or at least I don't know it, but it is the only glaring downside to such an exciting course.
If another exploratory course such as this was created, I would like to be a part of it. I think it is fun and exciting to explore new forms of thinking or tools and see how we can modify that to work within the educational field. The ability to pioneer new pedagogical approaches and insights is always something I enjoy being a part of and hope I get to do again.
