Closing+Remarks

My Closing Remarks This past semester has been quite an experience. This was my first class since I graduate with my bachelors back in 2003 and I can say it was fun. Between my work experience and education I figured this should be fairly simple, I just have to learn the teaching aspect. Man was I wrong. From the get-go I felt a little out of place, everybody was talking about how they use technology in classrooms and what not. Me not being a teacher, I really did not have a classroom, so I really couldn’t relate to everybody. But that didn’t discourage me, I continued on. By the second module I felt I was starting to get into the groove of things. Creating a wiki was probably one of my most favorite things. Having edited wiki-pages in the past, this was fun starting from scratch. Pretty soon I was crafting and thinking of all the cool things I could put on it. I also plan to keep it and try to update it as I continue my work to my master degree. The next task was more eye opening. I had to examine my life and how technology played a role in it. It was really nice seeing how my future goals mesh well with both work and school. It was also fun playing around with the different types of programs out there for “mind mapping.” However, I always called it ‘brain storming.’ This all lead to M4 Pathfinders. The Pathfinder was probably where most of the real work started. First learning what a pathfinder was and understanding the intended use was interesting, and then looking for all the information. Using one of my favorite past times as the topic, the search began for all the LEGO goodness. It was pretty fun and since then I have created a Pathfinder for Windows7 to handout in two weeks when I lead a couple training sessions on Windows7. The next week we dealt with copyright. This has always been a subject of interest to me. From the time I heard or made up the phrase, can’t remember long time ago, “The best way around the law, is to know the law.” While most of the information I already knew, I did find the games on the websites quite fun. It was also nice to see that there is information and some effort out there to try to help educate parents and kids on the safety and ethics of the internet. Too many times do I go to a youtube video, or play some multi-player game on XBOX and hear/see people being so rude. Just because the internet gives you a cloak of anonymity does not mean you can be rude. *end rant* By the next week, like always I started to get lazy. Waiting pretty much till the last minute to work on it, I was pretty surprise how easy and fun it was. I especially enjoyed recording the lego podcast, it was fun talking about legos, even if the conversation was one side. Pretty soon, I was having fun. We were starting to cover topics and areas that I didn’t have much experience in. It was nice to see how some of the technology I have learned and used could be used in the classroom. I have also taken some of this information and tried to incorporate in to my labs here on campus and other classrooms that I support. Needless to say, I had fun and learned a lot in the class. I also enjoyed looking at everybody’s presentations and projects. I hope that my rest of my schooling goes well and I look forward to seeing some of you in my next class. So until next time; take care of your friends, your family, and yourself. Peace