Kaitlin LaPlante

EDU 315

Writing #5

December 12^th, 2009

I definitely feel as though I have grown in a variety of different ways as a result from this course. There were so many things relating to technology that I was unaware of or curious as to how to go about doing/making certain things with technology. I was curious about making a website, and a wiki, and a web quest, I just never had the opportunity to learn or ask someone how to do these things until I took this course. It seemed to me as if there would be so much confusion if I had tried to learn all of this technology stuff on my own that I just shied away from it. I now feel, that I have picked up a lot of technical skills through taking this class such as; creating different activities online for children like a word search, integrating the use of technology into my lessons whether it be using YouTube, or having the children make a voice thread, or participate in a web quest. I feel more comfortable with using tools on the web and on the computer, and I think that it’s really great because now I won’t hesitate to use the technology, like I would have previously without taking this course. I am very comfortable with using word, and making websites, and iMovies. I really would have liked to have an opportunity to use excel and see how that whole system works, I hear that it is amazing once you become comfortable with all of it’s features.  

There are both pros and cons to both working alone and working in groups when it comes to technology related projects. I really enjoyed working with the iMovie in groups because there was a lot to accomplish and many roles to fill when creating the movie and it would have almost been impossible to create an iMovie similar to what we had made with only one person. When you work in groups you also learn a lot of information from your other group members which I find to be really neat. I really enjoyed working alone on projects like the photo story, and the MS Word Projects because I was able to do what I wanted to do and make the projects more personalized. I still learned a lot from others in the class about projects that we had to complete individually through talking about our projects with one another and what we did, and did not do, and how to do all sorts of things.

I would share my accomplishments with others in technology integration when I am a teacher by providing others with examples of my work and allowing myself time to work with other teachers in the school if they are interested in learning about technology and some of the projects that I will be doing with my class. I have seen taking this class as an amazing opportunity, especially in today’s society where everyone is turning to technology. It’s important to be educated on these technology trends. I want to share all that I have learned in this class and also continue to learn more throughout my future years of teaching.