Final Reflection

First this by far, has been my most favorite class of all the courses I have taken. Shhhhh....don't tell the other professors!  I am truly grateful to have so many useful apps and programs that I can use personally and with my students and staff.  This summer was a fast and furious session.  I am taking 9 hours this summer and that was the most overwhelming thing: fitting all the coursework in, in addition to family this summer.  Thank goodness I wasn't working this summer.  

Second, I come from a technology background and was a computer teacher for the first 15 of my 20 years so that might be another reason why this came a little more naturally to me.  I have been out of it the last 5 years so seeing all of this new technology was great!  I needed this class more than you know.  Can't wait to implement much of this this coming year. 

Which ones excited you most?

Screencasting excited me the most.  Coming from the Campus Technologist/Computer Teacher position it has always been in my nature to teach the teachers technology too.  However, my schedule doesn't really allow for the extra time needed to "show" each teacher individually like I used to.  Screencasting will allow me to be in every teacher's classroom showing them new things all the time...but I'll only have to make the recording once! They will think I am so smart.

I also really like the Cartoon/Comic sites.  I dabbled a little in that last year but now I think I can take it to another level this next year.  I also like the blog reader.  It puts the things that I am interested in, all in one place where I can easily read.

Which ones were most difficult for you? 

I don't think that any of them were difficult for me, mainly because of my background.  The only thing that was difficult for me was the amount of time.  I think that sometimes I would get lost in the assignments because of my love for technology and then I'd run short on time.  Like I said, it is a fast and furious summer session.

Which one (in your opinion) will most benefit students?

This is hard. I think they will all benefit my students. I'm glad that we did this in a blog so that I can always easily refer back to it and all the things that I learned. Considering that I am in elementary and some of the apps or programs are not for children my students age that eliminates a few that way, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube but truly I love ALL of the others and plan to share them with my 5th grade students and most likely will share with students all the way down to kindergarten and 1st.  I can't wait to show them Flipagram and more of the cartoon and comics sites.  They will love them and there's so many things that I can do and the teachers will be able to do.  I love when student have a choice about how they show their learning.  Most, if not all apps and programs will allow my students the opportunity to show their learning in multiple ways.