Week 9: Reflections

Other than last week's frustration, this course taught me a lot. I found fabulous cross curricular tools that I will integrate into my lessons this year. My students are so inquisitive, especially about other cultures and history, that they will really get a kick out of the sites I have found. And, because I run a creative, student-centered classroom, I hope I can practice and integrate some of this great software and get the kids involved in creating their own digital art.
Mostly, I would use google earth and all of the elements related to it. I have used it for personal questions since learning all about it on this course, and I think I have already become more in tune with my world. And I want to go to the Galapagos Islands badly, thanks to google earth.
Now that I have learned how to make better use of discovery education, it will probably be a staple in my classroom. I love the Atlas feature for culture lessons.
I think the thing I really hated was working with the assessments on atomic learning. If they say they are going to save something, then it should be saved, by golly.
My word to sum it up is:enlightened. I feel enlightened by using these tools that teach about our world, which we all have the responsibility to save.
I would like the next course (because I am sure we'll do a Web 2.1 next year, right?) to show us how to create classroom podcasts and video podcasts that we could distribute via itunes.
Thanks for the learning.

Week 8: Frustration Sets In

This week took me about 2 weeks to do, not all entirely because of the length of the tests and projects, though some of it was atomic learning's fault.
You should know that I think my desktop is close to failure, so loading things sometimes takes a while and things regularly close or freeze on me, causing me to completely reboot.
On the other hand, atomic learning would not save my tests, so I had to start my assessments several times over. This took hours.
I am not as technologically intelligent as I would like to be, as my final assessment shows. I do know enough, though, I think, to get around the computer and use a lot of really cool digital tools.
This week, I chose to learn about audacity and windows movie maker. I have tried both of these programs on my own to edit sound and video, and have been quite discouraged. Now, I can say I can probably get by on them with a little practice. Given the two, I really like movie maker and would like to practice with it for a while to make digital presentations and possibly my vlog or video podcasts that I have been promising myself I would do. I think time and practice are what is necessary to achieve on this program.