In today’s educational world, there are many forms of technology that teachers can use to enhance their classroom and engage the students in learning. In this course, we studied several different ways that the internet can be incorporated into the classroom. We also discussed how we, as educators can use the internet to help further our careers, (whether young or veteran educators).
I really enjoyed this course. I thought that it was very well put together and the material is very useful as an educator. Each project that we had to construct I felt was relevant and many of which I either used in student teaching, or have an idea on how to implement these techniques into my teaching in the future. During my student teaching I put together a web quest for my students as an ongoing project for my unit I taught on Ancient Egypt. I feel that the webliography was great because not only dos it help the person that created the webliography find good, educational websites on the internet but the others in the class can download the other webliography files, increases their resources and knowledge of educational websites.
I enjoyed the web quest project because it helps me learn about other web sites that are out on the internet that can be useful in the classroom and that my students will enjoy when they are assigned the web quest. I believe that web quests are a great learning tool because they engage the students in a different was then regular assignments of the teacher simply lecturing to the class. They can also be developed for almost any unit in school, which makes them extremely versatile.
The social bookmarking project I thought was a great exercise and like many of my classmates it seems, I am still using it and always adding links to my list. It is a great resource in case I am ever in a classroom and cannot use my laptop with the district’s technology. Also, if I am ever away on a trip and find something without my computer, I can save it and then share my list with other educators as well.
I have always enjoyed online learning classes due to the freedom and mobility of the class. As a student, I can work on an assignment and either complete it or save it and come back to it later, whenever I have a free minute. This I feel helps maximize my time as a student because there is no structured class time to meet at and hand in assignments. I can also work on assignments when I choose to and not have to worry if the library is open or if my professor has office hours. Taking an online course you are always in contact with the others in the class due to the discussions and email.
I enjoyed learning at my own pace with this course and having to option to work on my own or with a group on a few assignments. Centering the learning on the student and giving them choices makes the class more enjoyable for them they will be eager to learn. This is true no matter the level you teach at I feel. The content of the course I felt was very relevant and useful to have as an educator. Each project can and are implemented in the field today and being a substitute teacher, I have seen some great results out of the students that develop these projects.
Being the second EDU 505 I have taken I was happy to see that one of my suggestions, a place to share our work was implemented into the course. I feel that this is a great way for educators to share their work and ideas with each other because when you are in the field, you need to collaborate with your colleagues and share ideas to further yourself and your classroom.
Overall I thought that the course was put together really well and I would (and have) recommended this course to anyone that asked about it. I would actually like to see a form of this course worked into the undergraduate curriculum because with the evolving technology and teachers using the internet more in their classroom, this is an important topic to cover. I thought that you, Dr. Yang were an excellent teacher during the course and were very easy to get a hold of and talk to. I will be taking your EDU 506 course this spring as a required course for my program.
