Course Review

I've learned a lot this semester about the different technology tools which are available to modern teachers, most of which I hadn't heard or used before now.

I do like the idea of the interactive white boards. I think that, once I get a hand of teaching subjects, I will be able to create an excellent portfolio of those for teaching different subjects. Especially for younger students, the interactivity could be a very useful tool for keeping their attention.

Many of the other tools I see myself using as a "special project" tool rather than as an "every day" tool. Videos and digital diagrams could easily be made by students, and wikis and webquests could could be assigned to students.

As far as improving the course, I feel that a section on social media would be a valuable addition. Cover the major sites (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google Plus, etc), what is or is not acceptable to share, and how to keep such a profile private, if you choose to do so. Teachers need to be professional in the context of their school and activities related to their job, but they should be allowed and able to keep their personal life private from their employers and students if they wish to do so. This unit would also be a good opportunity to discuss cyber bullying and how teachers can or should intervene in cyber bullying when they learn about it.

I would also like to learn more about making movies, as we only learned a few basic skills in using the program. We did not touch at all on recording audio or video, or editing them into a video. Those would be valuable skills for future teachers, especially if we wished to assign video projects to our future students. We also didn't look at alternate video programs, and not all schools will use Mac computers.