It’s always a relief to finish something like that. But sure enough, as soon as we’re done with it we can’t help but think about things that we would change. I would do several things. First I would update the picture of myself. Then I would rewrite some of my paragraph copy because I don’t think it says exactly what I want to say. I would also reexamine the art or design that I included. There’s always so much of it I’m never sure what I want to show. I think if I were going to apply for a specific job I would probably redo it just for that time period.

http://www.salinefb.org/denise/index.html

1) Lori Beth Faulkender: This is my favorite and here’s why. It has a style of writing to it that is happy and enthusiastic. It also has a link that directly states: Where I am From? I thought to myself what better way could someone extend an invitation to others to get to know the teacher? I thought it was real nice.

2) Laura Shaw: I thought this website had a nice professional and clean design to it. Everything was coordinated and I thought that helped pull things together.

3) Joleen Schoenthaler: I liked the additional clip art that was added on the various pages. It doesn’t look scary—like some clip art does—but neat and professional and it has an educational them so that’s even all the better.

Hey, ladies—good job!

My favorite was The TechTeacher by Brad Neissen. In comparison to the other his podcasts came across much more professional. Much of this is due to his conciseness of ideas. Others included the listener in irrelevant information which I found distracting. Although I will say all of them had valuable information to share. I just preferred how some shared it over others.

I can see myself using the blog. I’d like to do it anonymously however so I can feel free to say whatever I want. Sometimes things that aren’t censored don’t outline the problem or solution clearly. I would also like to learn to write so that my blogs are interesting—it really is an art and without that I’m just another blogger. I thin it’s important to get ideas out there because this is how change happens.

I particularly liked Voice Thread because it had such a sophisticated design. It had audio and visual capability and was easy to do. I think the ease is something that is important to students or the class time will be spent working with instructions on how to create something.

1) I spend a great deal of time on the internet so what surprised me most is all the interesting websites that can be found and I had no idea. I’ve obviously enjoyed them a great deal (or at least see their value) because I’ve been telling my students about them. I’m hoping they too will see the fun in them.

2) What is neat about many of these websites is that you don’t have to be a computer guru, an artist or have special equipment to participate—it really is for everyone.

3) This is more of a reflective thought than something I actually learned. I had no idea that social networking was this big of a deal. Was I wrong! If done appropriately I can see the value within the classroom.

4) I did a great deal of thinking this semester about the value of technology in the classroom. I really want to implement as much as possible but I’m afraid that the purpose of the lesson can get lost which is the opposite of what any teacher wants to accomplish. I hope this becomes easier for us to be able to quickly see what works and what doesn’t.

5) I never thought about how challenging it might be to try to get technology into the school until now. I thought it was something that everyone in education would want. It isn’t quite like this and might need a support team to make it happen. This is also something now I think we all know to ask during interviews—how fast they are implementing technology or how importantly is it viewed?