What I Have Learned

EDM 310 has been an invaluable learning tool for me. I have gained so many new skills in this class and learned the many ways we can use technology in the classroom such as:

1) Blogs- learning to create and post to a blog. I definitely want to use blogs in my classroom.
2) Links and Pictures-learning to create links and upload and post pictures to the blog. This is going to be really helpful because before this class, I had no idea how to get my pictures from the digital camera to another source.
3) Alt Tags- how to put alt tags (modifiers and title tags) on my photos for sight impaired readers.
4) iTunes- how to download material from iTunes- especially the podcasts- and they're free! I liked listening to all of the podcasts and video casts-especially "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch.
5) Podcasts- I really didn't know what a podcast was before this class- and now I have participated in one. I would like to be able to create my own podcast in the classroom someday so this information is really helpful.
6) Google Tools- I didn't realize all the tools Google has available-and they're free- such as:
-Google Docs- which I can use for spreadsheets, word documents and presentations
- Google Blogger- a great way to create a blog for free
-iGoogle Page- I can put items on this page for my students to use- and all the Google gadgets available.
-Picasa- which I will use to edit and save photos

7) ACCESS- I probably would not have known as much about the ACCESS labs if we had not been required to visit one for our assignments. This is something I would like to be involved in someday.

8) ALEX- I didn't know this web site existed before now. This will be a resource I will go to again and again for lesson plan ideas.

Something that I would have liked to have learned in this class is how to create a web site. This is a project that I would probably be required to do when I start teaching as a resource for my students so I would like to know how to get started.

The most important thing I learned in this class though, is how much I like technology! Before this class, I never really used the computer for more than email and doing assignments in Word. There is so much more to explore! I am glad I got the opportunity to discover so many new things.