It's Time to Reflect

When I started this class, I was quite nervous because I really felt out of the loop with regards to technology. When the questionaire was handed out for us to complete, I had knots in my stomach because I had no idea what some of the things on the survey were.
When I watched cable news shows such as CNNor MSNBC, I wondered what they meant when they talked about blogs. What in the world was a blog? I didn't take the time to look into it though. When we created our own blogs, I finally realized what they were and how easy it was to use to post entries on. I also did my project and paper on this to find out more about how blogs could be utilized in the classroom. In my research, I found out that teachers are using them to extend students learning from within the classroom to outside the classroom. Students have someone other than the teacher to write to and teachers have found this to be a great experience.
I still do feel that I am so behind with technology overall. It was funny the other day when one of my students(who is now in fourth grade) from three years ago came to stop in to read a book that she had written and dedicated to me (I read it the next day to my current students). Well, her mom was telling me how her daughter is using powerpoint for school presentations and I told her that she could teach me how to use powerpoint. My colleague (that same week) told me how her daughter, who is in 6th grade, uses powerpoint as well and how comfortable she is using it. We then talked about how uncomfortable we are with it because we don't know how to use it and how students nowadays have just grown up with this at their fingertips.
Another funny thing was when I went over to my parents house the other day to help them with the water from the flood. That wasn't funny but seeing our old computer in the basement was. It made me think about what we have talked about in class in terms of Web 2.0. This old computer sitting in the basement was used just to find information for reports. Attached to it was this old printer that used the paper with the holes on the sides to feed the paper through as it was printing. Now, I go on to e-mail, blog and make comics. Computers have indeed become any extension of us allowing us to communicate with an audience so much greater than I could have imagined with just the touch of a button.
With regards to Myspace, I really don't have any interest in it for myself but I can see how it is of interest to so many including students in the schools today. It's very interesting how now when the news media needs to find information out about a person, they go to Myspace and refer to the postings that are made on their sites. This was done with the recent Virginia Tech shootings where they looked up both the victims and the shooter to find out more personal information. It's also apparently being used by employers so that they can do an unofficial background check on a potential new hire. Is this right? I don't know but I think people really need to think about what they put out there because once it's out ... it's out for all to see.
During the summer, I plan to play around with the computer and my new digital camera to learn some more things than I do now. I keep telling my husband that we need to upgrade our phone to one that has a camera. His students that he works with at his church tease him about his 'dinosaur' of a phone. Maybe that will get him going. I may also go ahead and take a course or two related to powerpoint and other tech material so that I can learn more for my own sake. I should probably ask my niece or nephew to teach me. They would probably love it. Well, that's it. Thanks for the experience!