Final Reflection

What I knew—how to email, use Facebook, how to blog, send photo attachments to email, and how to use the new grading software Infinite Campus.

What I wanted to know—what was out there, what students knew that I hadn’t yet heard of, what kinds of resources were out there that would add variety to my teaching.

What I learned since 1st week of class—this isn’t even a fair question! How can I possibly explain what I have spent nine weeks and over 100 hours learning? Instead of a list I would just like to offer some comments about the journey—please prepare yourself for stream-of-consciousness writing below.

I remember how excited I was about RSS feeds. Now this seems like a good place to start with my students. Then there was Social Bookmarking, where I kept to Delicious because Diigo looked too much like Facebook. Then I found out how to put YouTube videos on my blog. SO cool. And then podcasting was awesome. Heck I could make tracks all day long about whatever comes to mind! Then when my brain started filling up to critical mass, we took a break to focus on edublogs and listening to podcasts. Really it has been a roller coaster of uncharted territory for me.

I remember having a couple of meltdowns early on because I didn’t know what I was doing, and my husband (whom I go to for all minor and major crises) couldn’t help me because he has never been exposed to any of this Web 2.0 business. In that small way, I found an area where I have more expertise! I can be the expert here—my husband is very smart and well read so I often feel that he knows more about so many topics. He is a great resource to have around and he always answers my questions no matter how obscure, but this time I had to figure it all out by myself. Hence the meltdown. I had to learn to calm down and sit at my computer and figure it out. He didn’t even know about my webcam because he had never had one. Luckily I didn’t encounter too many computer glitches, or if I did along the way, I worked them out and put them out of mind.

This class has made me want to become a leader in my department. Now that I am forth from the top (in seniority) because of many retirements last year, I really want to be seen as a resource. I want to help the new teachers find these online resources. I will be a mentor for one new teacher this year so this might be a good opportunity for that, but I really want to finally be considered a wealth of knowledge in some area. Since no one that I have talked to had ever mentioned Web 2.0 maybe this is my chance.

What I would like to do is start two Wikis (one for American Lit. and one for Newswriting and Photography) and I’m a little scared about that. So far I am avoiding it because I don’t know how much work it will be. Where do I start? How do I make mine to look half as cool as Lena’s? What would be the easiest program to use? I want to be a part of this technology; I am looking for the right door to open. If anyone has any pointers about this I would love to know where to get started. I still have a week before school starts (granted it is filled up with last minute appointments and to-dos but nonetheless, it is still a week).

I want to thank our teacher Kim and all of you for being such an inspiring community of learners and wonderful resources. I look forward to reading your blogs in the years ahead, and I hope that I will update mine from time to time as well. I guess I’m not ready for all of this to end, and I’m happy that it doesn’t really have to; we will still be out there together and able to communicate.

So I guess I will say “adieu” with hopes to continue what we started here.

I wish you good lessons and good times in the year ahead.