Overview of Technology and this Class

I can't believe this semester is almost over! SO crazy! I feel like I have learned some valuable things from this class.

1. I have used technology to help me stay connected with others. I think social networking is a great way to gain more knowledge because there are so many things that you could learn about and often the easiest way to learn is through other people. I also use technology a lot when I research, it is the easiest way to get a lot of facts and articles pertaining to the specific subject I am looking for.

2. In this class and in other classes I have had the opportunity of collaborating with other students through technology. In this class, the collaboration was through commenting on other's blogs in the beginning of the semester. I liked seeing the other people's ideas. Sometimes if I didn't understand an assignment or did not have ideas on what I should post on my blog, I would look at my groups' blogs and see what they came up with. This was more of a brainstorming process for me than a "copycat" process. I often need to be able to bounce ideas off of others before I can come up with a solid solution or response. In other classes I have used google docs a lot for collaboration on study guides and group presentations. This is a great way to see what other people have learned or have questions about without setting aside a lot of time to meet with them.

3. One major way I will personally use technology in my classroom is through videos. I will share video clips and video tape my dance students so they can watch their performances and see what they can do to improve. I also want to create class websites or a class blog so that my students can always know what they should be working on and so the parents stay informed too.

4. I learned that technology is not as hard as I thought it was. I was always a little afraid to do things with technology because I was afraid I would do it wrong or break it or something. I realized that technology is very user friendly, and if you don't know how to do something, there are many resources available to figure it out.

5. Some specific things I learned was how to embed videos, how to create a website, how to create and edit a video, and how to download youtube videos. All four of these skills will be helpful to me especially because I want to use a lot of videos in my future class.