Miss Cozat’s Blog

Here are a few pictures I found

A picture of Mars

Today I researched information about my planet Mars- I founds some great information on nasa.com and a few other sites. I bookmarked them all to delicious.com so they can be found easily. I also found some great sites for other students in the classroom and I sent the links to their delicious accounts as well.

This is the story of Exceptional Children learning to use adaptive technology. Enjoy…

This course has really helped me to grow and develop as a technology teacher. I feel that I am more prepared, have more ideas about technology integration, and understand how to use some new types of technology. I have also learned a lot about instructional learning categories focusing on what makes a piece of technology good based on how children are taught and learn online. This class not only showed me what these technologies were and how to use them, it also helped me develop projects using them and I actually had to use technology that we were learning about. Many courses that I have taken have taught me about technology and how to use it effectively in the classroom, but this course actually taught me how to use the technology. This is a great benefit because I will be more likely to use it in my classroom now. For example, I have been taught about podcasting for several classes, professors did podcasts of research, but this was the first class that I actually had to make my own podcast.

I also have come to realize that TechQuests are a very fun way to integrate technology with curriculum. Done correctly TechQuests can be a very motivational tool that gets children excited about learning and using technology. By making a quality TechQuest children are able to learn from a variety of different pedagogical strategies which makes for a powerful learning experience! Not only are children using the computers to find information about the classroom curriculum they can use web 2.0, podcasting, blogging, wikis, flip cams and many other wonderful tools to create projects or reflect on the project that they are working on.

Online Experiences that I have had during this course- Which of these tools makes for great learning? Well… to be honest TechQuests, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, RSS feeds, Research, Electronic Portfolios, software, web based programs, Simulations, tutorials and gaming all have the potential to be excellent tools to educate- but then again, not used correctly or with enough emphasis it can be just as exciting as a worksheet! I love the potential that all of these online experiences hold, however when compiled in a so-so manner they are not so-so good! Reading about different types of software and online tools in this course has been a really eye-opening experience for me. Learning about the different types of learning that occurs based on Grabe and Grabe’s article. It is very important that we categories of instructional learning that work best for children. We also should be using a variety of instructional learning categories so that children can experience different types of technology that work well for them. This was probably the most interesting section for the session for me because I had never thought about technology in such as way. I will definitely purchase the book so that I can reference it often.

Overall my goal in this course was to become more competent in web 2.0 programs as well as learning about new technologies and the effectiveness of them. I truly believe that as I step away from this course I am going to be more likely to use different types of new technologies in my technology lab, as well as evaluate them in a better manner. As I continue down the road of educational technology I would like to develop more TechQuests and perhaps even programs that help children to learn more about curriculum as they use technology. I plan to keep up with my Educational Technology program to help me do this, as well as continue studying and reading online resources.