Reflection

This course was one of the most challenging course of my program up to this point. However, I feel that it was more my fear of technology than the course itself. I am the first to say that technology is an effective tool that does enhace daily living but personally it is not somehthing that I am desiring to use very often.

However, this course has exposed to skills, tools, software, equipment and information that I would have NEVER thought of seeking out for myself. I am appreciative of this course now than when I started. To be perfectly honest I did not like this course very much but had to do it becuase of my program. This feeling has changed, in that I am thankful that I am leaving this class with knowledge that will be with my for a life time. I know that I will be using many of the techonology that I have learned throughout the semester, such as boardmaker, kidspiration, photostory (even though I willbe in a deaf setting), my RSS feed and book markers. The last two has made my organization of information from the web much, much more easier to access and read.

I am not saying that I did not have challenges because I did. My computer crash because of downloading a bookmarker and there were times when I got so frustrated that I disliked the class very much amd was sorry I took it. However, those challenges forced me to be determine to overcome my short comings in technology. This has made my attitude change towards using technology. I am now more convince that using tehcnology in a classroom is not a hassle (as I use to think), but an enhancement to ensure for children vis-a-vis their learning process whether they have a disability or not.

I am aware that there will always be challenges in technology but my attitude is no longer to avoid the use but to embrace it with alternative plans (just in case there is a problem). This class has allowed me to appreciate that technology is a good thing not a bad thing and it is my attitude towards it that will make the huge difference in how effective I will be with using it. I am thanking that the professor's attitude at times was a 'you try and figure it out yourself'. I did not like it at first but I now feel that if she helped me with every problem I had, I would be able to have this change of thought towards technology. I was annoyed at first but after seeing the numerous problems I faced and was able to figure them out myself. Hence, thank you very much Christine, I have surfaced as a much stronger and positive person about using technology and fixing problems as they arise. For example, I had a problem with submitting that mini-test that I got in class using Internet Explorer, so on the midterms I did not use Interent Explorer but Firefox (which solved the problem). I did the photostory ELO, the first one came out grainy and I was annoyed but sought help on my own, got it and did a second one (which came out beautifully). These are lessons that I will take with me, as well as, in technology (as in every other thing in life) there is a solution, you just have to find it. However, your attitude plays a big role on how you approach or not approach the problem.

This course taught me lessons that will help me as go through Columbia, as well as, has taught me to embrace (not reject) technology and more importantly USE it in the classroom effectively to enhance the learnig process for the children who I will have the opportunity to meet throughout my teaching experience.