It's All Greek to Me!

When I signed up for my fourth summer elective this year, the name of the class, Educational Tech for Educators, intrigued me.

Now I must begin by telling you that when I had my first job in high school as an assistant to the secretary of an insurance agent in town, I typed all correspondence on a typewriter using carbon paper! I moved on to college and now vaguely remember a course or two on programming computers using DOS or something like that. (I don't think I did very well in those classes.) Then it was on to my first job. Yes, I used a computer, but for very basic functions like typing correspondence and creating excel-type reports. As I moved up in the corporate world, computers and the web became more advanced, but by that time I had a secretary who did all that type of work for me. In 2000, I decided that I had enough of the "rat-race", and went back to school to get my teaching degree. Once again, I was using computers, but to basically type reports for my classes. When there was research required, I used the internet if I had to, but preferred to rely on good old fashioned library books as my resources. Even my first master's class last fall required a research report, with only licensed periodical databases allowed for internet sources. Needless to say, I found a few, and went right back to my old comfort zone - books from the libarary. During all this time, my husband and I have had computers in our home. I have googled many pieces of information for personal use, and although frustrated more times than not at the lack of information found, was okay with my level of "expertise" - (and I use that term VERY loosely!)

Here I am in this course, and have learned that I have so much to learn when it comes to using computers. I have been exposed to many new terms, e.g. wikis and Web 2.0, and taught how to utilize many previously unknown functions of Microsoft Word and perform database searches (thank you Mia!). Although I have found myself close to and in tears when trying to create a brochure or do a proper database or web search, I also have new skills that not only will enhance my abilities to find information for school and personal use, but also to enrich the lives of my students. It is no secret due to our weekly discussions, that I came into this class thinking that all of this technology is fine for teachers who work with middle and high school students; however, not really for me because I teach third grade. As the weeks have progressed, so has my thinking. Whether third graders are researching a topic that I've assigned in class, or posting work of their own, there are certainly places for this type of instruction at this young age.

I will continue to keep an open mind in the next 6 weeks of this class, and will end this entry with a confession. I did go to the libary and took out Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts. But, have also used Google Reader to add his blog site, http://weblogged-ed.com/, to my sites subscribed to as part of this week's assignment. It's a start!!