Sunday, February 27, 2011

What Can I Do With All of This New Knowledge?

    After learning about these new and various online programs my head has been spinning with ideas of what I can do in my 2nd grade classroom.  I have already begun setting up a blog for my classroom for parents to access to see what is new at school.  Further, I am setting up  a Skype performance with a 6th grade class so they can preform a Dr. Seuss book for my students.
    The overall idea of web based document creation and storage is completely foreign to me.  It seems that all I create would therefore be accessible to anyone who chooses to hack into my account, which is true.  But anyone who finds my flash drive also has the capability to access them as well.  I guess it is just up to me to conform to the times and DO IT!
    The software of all of these programs are amazing and it is simply learning the new technology will take some time, but once I have all of the little bugs worked out, I am sure that I will enjoy these new technologies and then share them with all of my peers.  I have already begun to do so, not it is just a matter of learning more and sharing as I go!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

What I Hope To Learn

    In starting this "online" Masters Program it is has been both exciting and unnerving.  My personal learning style is more of a face-to-face ideal and hands on with help "physically" available.  With that said I do believe that it is very important to the I.T. concept that we be on the cutting edge of technology in education.  There is no greater way to do this than to take the road of the future--online schooling.  Many Universities are headed this way, such as, Cardinal Stritch and many of the UW school systems.
    This program I feel will open my eyes to technology that will only enhance my teaching abilities.  I am hoping to learn new technologies, systems, and methods that can be used in my classroom at Parkway Elementary School.  My second grade classroom currently has an ActivBoard, and a few Mac operating systems.  There is also a lab full of Mac desktops that my students access multiple times a week.  My concern is that our students are only given permission to certain sites and programs that in all honesty are on a very short list.
    In studying and working in MEIT I hope to not only learn of new programs, but also to learn of new technologies to push my teaching abilities and teaching arsenal to their fullest potential.  Learning of new operating systems and programs to make my classroom management, grading, and document processing more efficient and successful is a main goal of the program.  I feel that it is with this knowledge that I can take my abilities as a teacher to the next level.