This semester was my first semester back to college in three years, and I was incredibly nervous about going back after such a long gap. When I signed up for classes, I remember thinking “Oh my gosh, how am I ever going to pass this technology class? I’m horrible with technology!” Unfortunately, I did not know anyone who had already completed the 
course so I started the class not knowing what to expect. Honestly, the first project we did, which was Google Groups, I immediately started knowing I was going to fail it, because in my head I had already told myself I couldn’t do it. Little did I know, a girl I work with at Magnolia Park was in my class, and another girl from Pecan Park, one of our sister schools, was in the class too! We were lucky enough to be grouped together and I can say that we, along with two other partners, did a great job on our project and I felt so much better at that moment about the class.
Over the course of the semester, I learned many different avenues of integrating technology into my classroom that I had never thought nor heard of before, and I strongly believe that I will be a better teacher in the future for it. We learned many different ways to teach using technology, and in doing so, have learned the tools we need to meet the National Educational Technology Standards for Students and Teachers.
I would have to say my strongest point in the class would be the blogfolio. I really enjoy writing, so getting to talk about my experiences with projects and my chapter readings was fun. Also, I enjoyed reading others’ blogs to see if they had the same type of experiences I had and what their strong and weak points were. There was also one communication tool that we used the most in this class, and it was BlackBoard. We used BlackBoard for everything; sending messages, checking our grades, looking at our assignments, reading announcements, and even our online meetings were linked in BlackBoard. I can’t say I know what college was like without BlackBoard because,
as I mentioned before, I have just now started back, but I feel like this is a positive addition to the online learning experience, and if used correctly by teacher and students, can do nothing but help students like myself be successful. Taking online courses is difficult, especially having three or four at one time, but to have a communication tool like BlackBoard where everything is in one place on one website for every class makes the load a little lighter.
Some of the projects were simple; I particularly enjoyed Concept Mapping because that tool can be used for any grade level, any subject, and any time of year. However, some of the projects, particularly the Assistive Technology assignment, almost gave me a nervous breakdown. Doing that assignment this week was the first time in this course that I really felt as though I had absolutely no business in this class; I felt hopeless. Luckily, my good friends that I have made in this class, along with my wonderful fiancé, helped me figure it out and I was able to complete it and get full points for it. The relief I felt after seeing my grade was indescribable.
Despite my issues with some of the projects, I strongly believe that because of this class, and because of everything I have learned through trial and error, experience, and through reading the chapters of our textbook, I will be a stronger, more technologically advanced teacher in the future. My communication experience with my peers and my instructor and her 
assistant has been wonderful this semester. I honestly have to say that if I would have had little to no communication with either, I would not have done as well in this course as I have done. My instructor and her assistant have been wonderful coaches and supporters, giving detailed instructions and providing constant communication, and my peers have gone above and beyond to help me when I needed it, just as I hope I have done for them. I sincerely enjoyed every week of this course and I am looking forward to what the future hold for this IT 465 class of the fall of 2014!
followed the directions given to a tee, but I apparently don’t know how to use my own keyboard which made taking the screen shots difficult. Even at the end of the project, when I thought I might look back on it and enjoy the fact that I did it, I still look back and think I’m glad it is over. I appreciate the learning experience it was, and I am proud of myself for completing it. I know that I will have to use some of these tools in the future, but I’m hoping that I will have an easier time with it when that time does come.
percentage that has been stolen and what websites it was taken from. This is a great tool for college professors, and for higher grade teachers as well. Plagiarism, although it is impossible to locate every offender, is a crime, therefore tools like this are crucial in school systems. I am excited to be getting to know this website, because I will use it in the future.
This week, I chose to discuss strategies for integrating technology into music and art curriculum. There are many really great ways to integrate technology into music and art instruction these days, and few classes actually use them. 
In the art curriculum, children can take virtual field trips to art museums that they would not be able to gain access to otherwise. Students can also create online portfolios to create their products. They can use iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to create videos, slideshows of their artwork and music videos. As for teachers, there are websites that allow teachers to create short videos on art concepts for students to view, as well as the Movie Maker I previously mentioned.
impaired can use built in screen magnifiers, and those who are hearing impaired can use an assistive technology device called FM amplification. For at-risk students, websites that provide learning opportunities in the form of games or motivational videos. They can also use websites with games that provide immediate feedback on performance to build self esteem. For students who are gifted, providing tools that will encourage self-research, multimedia presentations or webpage design will help those students engage in activities more to his or her level of cognitive function.
what is happening in the classroom. I have yet to figure out how to create a banner for my page, which, again, should have been simple, but I was having trouble downloading the one that I created, so I will have to go back and fix that. However, I do think that when I get to the point where I know more about it and can use this tool properly, it will be a great thing to have to show parents.
als”, or electronic pen pals. This is great for kids to interact with other children in a different area completely and allow them to get an insight into what life is like in other parts of the world.
resources that are not in the local area of the student, and are also aesthetically pleasing so they are fun to engage in.
and easy to understand, for some reason it was just so difficult for me to grasp what I was required to do. I feel like if I have more experience with it, it will get easier and be more useful to me in my classroom, but until then, I am definitely not a huge fan. I hope that my track included everything it was supposed to include. The rubric and test maker were very easy to complete, on the other hand. I have actually used test maker before, so I was already familiar with that tool. I enjoyed coming up with questions and will find this VERY useful in my future classroom, as well as the rubric. I feel like when I make up my own standards and tests, topics that I want to be covered will be done so more effectively. I think that even though I had some troubles with some of the tools, I will find them very useful in my future classroom as a teacher. I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about some of the tools we have available to us to help be more effective in the classroom.
children are safe, but staff and faculty are safe as well. This prevents inappropriate pictures popping up on a Google search, or advertisements and pop ups to vulgar images. It is all too easy now to come across something that is inappropriate and physical safety is not the only important thing to us teachers – mental and emotional safety is as well, and keeping our students safe from this type of material is high priority as well.
hat to do if they happen to become the victim of cyberbullying. As safe as we may think our school computers are, someone somewhere will find a way to get through and come into online contact with our kids if possible. That is another reason why it is important to let children know never to talk to anyone online who is asking for personal information or their whereabouts. There is a fine line between being aware and being scared, and we do not want to scare our children, but they have to know that if someone is asking for their personal information or talking to them in a way that feels wrong, they must tell someone. I believe It is important for children to be monitored at all times while in the classroom on the computers so that these types of situations do not happen. In my experience, children are much less likely to engage in activities that will compromise their privacy or safety if they are being monitored while on computers.
py and paste word for word documents to use for their own papers. It is important for teachers to show students how to correctly use sources for research and how to give those sources credit for the information they used from them. Children need to know what plagiarism is and why it is wrong, as well as how to use sources without plagiarizing. There are many great websites to prevent plagiarism as well, so using one of those websites for papers might be best in catching plagiarism at the forefront.
chose the topic I did when I started thinking about how I would teach a science class about different types of sharks and their mating and feeding habits. With that thought in mind, it became pretty easy making this concept map. In the future, I will find this useful for all subject areas, including parts of a story for reading, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for ELA, math, science, history, economics, etc. Saving this project to Google Drive is convenient and easy to do now that we have learned how to navigate Google Apps as well. I hope to use concept mapping in my future classroom and I hope I enjoy it as much at that time as I have now. The more variety we put into teaching our classrooms, the better learning experience our students will have, in my opinion. 
d an orange who go on an adventure to New York City, where as third grade students might rather watch a short movie paraphrasing The Giving Tree, or Bridge to Terebithia. Knowing your target your audience will better help your creation process.
animations and other types of multimedia to present information to a classroom. In today’s society, as fast paced and technologically advanced as it is right now, our students need to be introduced to this technology at a young age so that they can expand on their knowledge as they move from grade level to grade level.
Carolynn Parrott 