This class has been wonderful... I think the best testament to that is how many times I've found myself talking about the class to other people, sharing things I've learned, or teaching my husband how to use all these great new tools!
I've always thought of myself as somewhat tech savvy... but it's amazing how quickly you can fall behind if you don't make the time to explore and play with new technology. I've certainly heard of podcasts, wikis, and Google Docs. But for some reason, I never took the time to learn more or see what they could do for me. This class forced me to do so, and now I wish I had done it on my own a long time ago. As new technology continues to emerge, I'm going to make a point of learning about it sooner rather than later!
The best part of this class was that it legitimized the "play" time for me. Life itself can be so busy, and it's hard to justify blocking off time to play with iTunes. It makes me feel unproductive and guilty. But thanks to this class, I had to play around as part of each weekly assignment. Now I see that this "play" time is actually very productive and worthwhile... within reason, of course! It's still easy to get side tracked on Teacher Tube!
Tools I learned about in this class that I will definitely use regularly: podcasts, Teacher Tube, more Digital Pipeline resources, Library Thing (not to catalog my library, but as a tool to find other books to read & for reviews), Google Docs, wikis, del.icio.us, RSS feeds & Google Reader, Voice Thread, and blogging in general. At this time I don't see myself using Technorati, Flickr, eBooks, or avatars & image generators too much... but once I'm back to work that may change.
I think the class text was a very good read and am going to check out more of the chapters on my own.
My only suggestion to improve the course is very minor: I would recommend editing the links in each section so that they always automatically open in a new window or tab. There were so many times that I would click a link, and before long I found that I had navigated very far away from the course page. Of course I always needed to get back there to review more links or see the requirements for the blog post. Like I said... this is pretty minor! As far as more important course elements (like the actual content) I feel like it was well worth the time and I really appreciate Ann and Katie's efforts to make this happen for us! Cheers!
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2 comments:
What a wonderful testimonial for the class. I really appreciate your positive and constructive approach and I am glad that so many of the tools are things that you can find a use for in your own life.
I appreciate the feedback about the links. I know there must be a way to do that, I will have to figure it out.
Thanks again and I hope you have a great summer!!
Ann
I have enjoyed reading your thoughtful comments on the 23 Things.
You have some great ideas.
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