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.
Hi Mike,
ReplyDeleteLearning online in this format is completely new experience for me as well. I use a lot of online resources for content and instruction already though so I believe that I am prepared. It will be interesting to see how your experience applying what you learn in the program applies to elementary aged kids and compare it to how I can apply it to teaching high school. I am 100% in agreement with you on educational technology being the future. Better to be on the cutting edge than falling behind. With all of the uncertainty surrounding our profession right now, having expertise in instructional technology will hopefully help us moving forward.
Hi Mike,
ReplyDeleteI have also traditionally been a face-to-face learner but like you, am starting to change with the times. I remember taking an online course from MATC on Visual Basic (back in the day) and earning like a C but the worst part was that I felt like I didn't know anything about Visual Basic. Sure we had access to a Blackboard system where a Teaching Assistant would check in a couple times a week to try to answer any questions but it still felt like it was just me, my textbook, and some uncooperative code staring me in the face, lol. This experience has been much different thus far with the Elluminate room and it's capabilities, the Angel learning LMS, and the various other tools that have already been presented. And it's only week 1!!
I commend you for staying ahead of the curve as a classroom teacher - you're school is lucky to have someone as motivated as you. Good luck!!
Hey Mike,
ReplyDeleteI am the opposite of you. I learn by just doing things by myself, exploring, tinkering, taking things apart and reading help files and tutorials. I think my learning style is a disadvantage for my students sometimes because I think they should be able to do the same as I do. I do however spend a lot of time individually showing students how to do things.
Perhaps taking this course will help you become more of a self learner. Dive in, try things out, check out the demo's. It is pretty hard to break the computer unless you download some bad software and with Web 2.0 stuff, mostly you just need to set up a account and see what you can do with it by clicking on all the buttons.
Are you left-handed? You chose a font that slants to the left. Unless this font is personally dear to you can I make a suggestion? Choose a font such as Arial, Verdana or Times New Roman for body text font. The font "Coming Soon" borders on a decorative font and is not as easy to read as the tried and true standard fonts listed above. Just a suggestion. You can keep the Coming soon font for the Post Title and other elements, just not for long text.