Wednesday, May 28, 2008

What I Want To Know...

So I'm taking my EDT532 course for grad school and was asked to start posting a blog during our course. Yesterday's entry was to respond to the following questions: "What do you already know?" and "What do you want to learn in this course?" Two very simple questions, but me being the supreme procrastinator that I am, completely forgot until I was on my way to class this afternoon. So, without further ado, here we go...
Question #1: What do you already know?

Well I've had my own website on Yahoo since I was a freshman at Endicott College in '98, but I've also been using Microsoft Front Page as my webpage editor in the ten years that I've had the site. As a teacher, I wasn't using the Internet for more that just research for my technology classes, but when I was given the title of Technology Resource Coordinator (read: Internet NERD), I began researching for more than just my class. Just last school year ('06-'07) I was intrigued by a Class Homepage Builder provided by Scholastic.com, so I began posting assignments and various websites for my students to my newly-created Scholastic homepage. Now, whenever they come into the computer lab, unless I send them to other sites, I usually have them log immediately into my Scholastic homepage and direct them to specific websites from there. I've also learned how to create podcasts using Audacity, as well as various projects using Adobe Photoshop and Flash. All three programs have allowed me to be creative in utilizing educational materials to benefit my students and others.
Question #2: What do you want to learn in this course?

Since part of its focus deals with creating websites, I would like to learn how to create one using Adobe Dreamweaver, as well as explore other possibilities for hosting my website. I really don't want to move it away from Yahoo if I can avoid it, but if there's another place that offers me more for less, I'll definitely take a peek at it at the least. I also would like to learn how to publish my podcasts to a site for others to download and listen to, which could hopefully lead to my students downloading specific lessons to do on their own.
I guess that just about answers both questions, but we'll see just how much I find out in these nine class sessions. Until next time...

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