Final Reflection

Final Reflection

Reflecting back on this journey, the words that come to mind are navigating, embedding, persistence and rewarding. 
Navigating:
As with any new tool, you need background knowledge, training and time.  I really appreciated how each activity was designed with these words in mind.  They began with an introduction to the tool or various tools we would be using, accompanied with a video clip which gave us the basic training we needed to dive into the activity.  For me, the biggest gift was the gift of time.  I had time to experiment, practice and play with the various Web 2.0 tools in a way that I would feel comfortable integrating them into some of my everyday lessons and communication.

Embedding:

I should also add HTLM code here, the big scary words of the past.  What was embedding and where and how did you embed what? I love how intuitive these have become.  I notice it more and more in projects I am doing on the computer.  Again, the gift of time gave us the opportunity to practice with a lot of trial and error in how each site uses it a bit differently than another.

Persistence:

Have the confidence to not give up and know that if I kept trying various ways, it would eventually come!  I think the activity that tests my persistence was creating the Google document and spreadsheet.  I was so determined to make it work like WORD and Excel that I truly was ready to throw in the towel.  Persistence paid off! I finally calmed down, or gave in, one of the two, and started from scratch using my prior knowledge to explore the tools provided by Google.  To date, I have now created two work documents for our team, and it is wonderful.

Rewarding:

Although there were times when I was frustrated, or worked through something only to say what I accomplished looks like I did it in a couple of minutes, I was proud of the process I went through to learn a new tool.  It has been extremely rewarding going through some struggles and conquering them.

An excellent case in point which demonstrates these four powerful words was Activity 8 – Data Gathering and polleverywhere.com. The main blog provided background knowledge on the use of the site accompanied by at video demonstrating how we could effectively use this tool.  I was so proud of how I navigated throughout the site and created a couple of polls quickly and intuitively, only to be stonewalled when I could not figure out how to embed the poll into my blog. Ah…this leads into the next word, persistence.  As my blog comments on how I worked through the embedding process, I did not stop until I had it figured out. I had embedded so many other tools in the previous activities that this one was not going to beat me.  Finally, I was rewarded for my efforts when the poll appeared on my blog.  I am going to use this tool at PIN night hoping to WOW my parents and draw them in.  I cannot wait! 

I tried to be purposeful in the activity I chose.  I chose ones I could implement at the beginning of the year. Some of them I will incorporate into my website, like the You Tube clips and the screencast I created on how to use the website, IXL.  I will use my tugxedo.com word play with student names on Meet Your Teacher Night along with the Google Form created “What’s the Buzz”.   I have already implemented the Cloud Computing by creating and “sharing” a couple of our team documents we developed this past week.  I am so thankful for the opportunity to have taken this type of course.  I know it has broadened my perspective on how I will look at presenting, creating and teaching.  Thank you to all for your comments, help and support!