After taking the course eme2040, I have a completely different view on technology and what it has to offer. When I first started this class I think I may have been a bit too confident, I figured I knew everything there was to know about technology and I didn't have any plans on bringing it into my classroom. Turns out I was completely wrong about both or those statements I actually knew very little about technology and now I find it to be useful. Although a lot of the assignments I had some trouble in the end became very exciting and I ended up really enjoying this course.
Although I was never a big fan of using the textbook we did a lot of our assignments using the text book including each blog post we had but it didn't contain useful information. I wont lie I dreaded the blog posts but the fact that we had to incorporate some kind of picture or slideshow made it a bit more interesting and fun. I'm sure a lot of students complained about the book but I do think its a good idea to keep this going it almost forces the students to actually learn about the chapter in depth.
I would have to say the discussions were my favorite by far. I loved the fact that it got the whole class to talk to each other and voice their opinion about the topic of discussion. I enjoyed getting the opportunity to farther my knowledge on technology for example when we were assigned a discussion that we had to select three specific best practices or resources that include the use of educational technology. This was a great opportunity for students to really understand what we can use in out classroom and what is and isn't just a distraction.
One assignment/activity I really enjoyed was the collaborative lesson plan I did not think I was going to enjoy it but it turned out great my partners were very helpful, I had the chance to create a real lesson plan which was very exciting and I experimented with teaching high school instead of elementary. One project we did that I found to be very helpful and really let us use and experiment with technology was our collaborative wiki page, at first I was very nervous and felt like I didn't know much but it turned out great and I think the fact that we couldn't talk to each other made it even better it also made it fair. When I first heard that we were going to do so many group projects I was a bit discouraged but it turned out great and I am so glad that we required to do that because not only did I learn a few things I made a view friends.
In the end I really enjoyed this class and all it had to offer, I'm actually very happy that I was required to take it. I left this course with an abundance of information and class activities that I can use in my future classroom. With or without technology this class still taught me a lot of useful information and completely changed my mindset, I now believe that technology plays a huge roll in the classroom and I think its a great thing.
