This is how I felt at the beginning of this course. Not only was I new to the education field but fairly new to all the technology. I'd been a stay at home for over 12yrs and boy has a lot changed in that time. The one thing that got me worried was all the social media. I'm not good with putting myself out there. However, I quickly realized it wasn't as bad as I thought. Things really didn't click with me until the course was nearly half over. Thats ok though. I figure I have a lot of time to poke around all the new tools. I've even started looking at tools we didn't use in class. I really like using Diigo, it took me a while to start utilizing all the resources available. Now I find I'm building a library of resources. I still have a lot more to learn in Diigo. It took me a lot of time to figure out how to use all the technology.
This course really shined a little on the need for teachers to not be afraid to use the technology tools and resources available to them. I was of the opinion that technology took away from students doing meaningful work. I admit I was totally wrong! Going through the quest opened my eyes to all the meaningful work student could accomplish with the use of technology. As educators the most important thing is to help prepare students for a new world. Technology is a huge part of that new world. Now is the time to integrate more technology into the classroom.
A big question that i need to answer next is, How will I utilize all the things I've been exposed to in this course to enhance my students education? Well for one, I want to show the students that I'm always learning new things as well. I want them to see I may not always have the right answers but I will work hard to find the right answers and there may even be more than one answer. I think the most challenging thing that I face with integrating technology is narrowing down all the resources. There is so much out there and not everything is going to work or be engaging. I want to teach my students that even with all the information out there we still need to be critical thinkers.
Now I feel more like this.
