Lessons+Learned

 I do not consider myself to be a technological savvy person, but I feel more confident with technology after taking this class. One helpful thing that we did during this class was the Technology Toolbox. This assignment helped me to become more aware of the technology that is available, and which tools will help me in my classroom. The Toolbox assignment allowed me to actively engage in the tool, which is the best way for me to learn about new things. However, not all of the tools that I found and that were presented to me during this class are going to be helpful in my elementary classroom.  The readings from the Web 2.0 book interested me in some potential tools that will be useful, and I have had some time to look into a few of them. These tools include: Evernote, Google Forms, Google Earth, Moodle, NetVibes, Timetoast, Voki, and Wordle. There were also some Web 2.0 tools that were show to us in class that could be helpful, but some of them were more geared towards the higher levels in education. I think it would have been more helpful if I was able to try the tools that were presented to us during the class, as they were being presented. I learn best by doing things myself as I am learning about them, and I think I would have learned more about each tool if I would have been on the computer and working the tool for myself with guidance.  The learning space was beneficial to learn about so that I can use one as a form of communication with my community and parents. It will depend on the age of my students, but I don’t know that it will be overly helpful at the elementary level for students. I used protopage because I had learned to use it for an online portfolio for an education class during my undergraduate degree. I wish I would have had a preview of the different spaces that are available because some looked interesting, but I did not know anything about them or how to use them. Overall there were some good things that I learned from this class, and I hope to use some of these tools in the future.