We are beginning our second week--the last half of our class, and I am still feeling enthusiastic about the assignments & projects overall. I have been having fun learning how to use some of the new applications, and even more fun learning about free resources I can download to my computer, etc. Anything free is good! And any resource I can use for my personal fulfillment, or to make myself more effective as an educator & service provider, is worth a great deal to me. I don't have conversations with anyone about technology (educational or otherwise), and as an employee at a non-profit, it just doesn't come up much. I think I may have explained in previous posts that I pretty much try to figure things out for myself, and after attending this course, am finding out that I was not that far off from what others are doing. But I don't feel that figuring things out as I go along, (if I happen to stumble upon them) is good enough anymore. Sometimes I do feel that I am using technology for the sake of using technology, and that it is not adding any value to the lesson/objective. Sometimes I feel that I am on the right track--technology is necessary--but a power point or blog is not enough. I feel that I am getting much needed resources & tools from this course. I don't feel that it is missing anything, given that we are in an accelerated course. I can picture myself wanting to take more courses in educational technology in the future, in order to keep building upon the basic concepts and skills I am developing here.
At this point, I am feeling a bit crunched for time, and having trouble keeping pace with the assignments, but not because they are too demanding, but rather because I am juggling so many other things outside of school. The digital story is particularly difficult for me, simply because there are so many options, but the nature and accessibility of the photos are the limiting factor. I just don't have time to go out into the community to take illustrative photos of some of the projects I would like to do. BUT... I am inspired to do them at some point soon anyway. I love the digital story!
There are times when I wish we were getting more time to do the nitty gritty work during class time (but again, accelerated course, so I can see why it's not very reasonable). More and more resources, especially free ones, are highly valued!!! I know I will be referring back to the MD400 Resources page for a long time, and hope to find more through other students' links pages.
No comments:
Post a Comment