My experience in technology class

I am not going to lie and say that I was absolutely thrilled to be taking a technology class. I was totally satisfied with what I knew and was sure I would pick up a few more things along the way. After taking this class I am surprised that I thought I could go into the teaching world without knowing about all of these tools. I thought I was overwhelmed the first day of class when I had to sign up for a twitter account...then to find out all the other accounts and tools I would be learning about! There is so much out there that can be helpful to me as a teacher and I am so excited to use it in my classroom.
It was really great being able to learn from my fellow classmates about the different technological tools that are available to me to use in my classroom. It was a great way for each of us to get familiar with our one topic and share it with the class. I had the pleasure of teaching about podcasts and itunes U, which before my presentation were pretty foreign to me. I now know the usefulness of these tools as well as an array of others. I really enjoyed the tools that are hands on and can be used as alternative assessments for the students in my class. History can be a very boring subject when it is all lecture and essay based. The tools that I learned through technology have taught me how to bring history alive. I really enjoyed the Glogster project as well as the little things like creating a class blog or wiki page.
It was also very interesting and useful to me to learn about basic and effective teaching. What makes teaching meaningful? How can you create networked learners? What is a teacher leader? These are questions that I had never even thought of and now understand the concepts and importance behind them. I now want to take what I have learned and become a teacher leader and a networked teacher. I now know the importance of teaching my students technology. And not only how to use it, but how to use it effectively and properly.
I wish that I had more time to play around with each and every tool that was provided for me, but am glad that I have a delicious account and the netvibes learning center to refer back to when I am looking for ways to implement technology in my classroom. I will continue to attempt to bridge the digital divide by educating my future students and helping them to be more digitally literate. It is such a crucial role for a teacher to take in students lives.
I will most definitely need to continue more research on the resources available to me and my future students as well as refresh myself on what I have learned. I just know that it is important for me to get my ideas out there to my students as well as to other teachers. The teachers that I have begun following on twitter have provided excellent resources for me and I hope to someday be providing some for them.
I think the biggest thing that I will take away from this class is not just all of the tools that I learned, but I now have a motivation and determination that I never had before. I want to continue to learn and spend more time researching so that I will be prepared to implement what I now know in my classroom. This class has been very beneficial to me in giving me this desire to learn more and I am so excited to further explore the world of technology!