Technology Course Assessment

           In this course Technology in Education, I learned about Jing, Scrapblog, Google Docs, wordle, polleverywhere.com, and webquest. I also learned how powerful of a medium the internet could be in affecting social change through Michael Steinman’s efforts with his own students. I will take away something from all of these technologies, but the technology I have most benefited from is Google Docs. I am not a tech savvy person, so I had no idea of the benefits Google had to offer. Learning how to create my own sites, professional and webquest is eye-opening for me. I will definitely utilize the webquest idea with my own students. I believe it is a great way to build upon their digital native foundation. I categorically love the forms we were taught to make in Google. They took all of the hard work out of it, and it is a tool I will absolutely use for my students, as well as the parents of my students. It provides a way for me to reach the parents and for them to response anonymously, or discreetly to where their children won’t have to carry around the papers and lose them or never turn them in if they don’t like what it says. This could apply to the first form I created using this technology, which is really for the parent’s eyes only.

            Before this course, I really underestimated the role of technology in education. I did know that students were what I now know to be called “digital natives”, but I had not really made the connection of the importance of reaching them in a language they were most comfortable with, technology. I want to reach my students where they are, and prepare them for the future, and I now believe that technology is a critical part of the equation.