Post #2

Chapter 3 covers many types of software, such as the microsoft office suite and grade book software, which are used by teachers to instruct and organize.  Other types of software discussed are personal finance, tax prep, and legal software.  One type of software that caught my attention is video/audio editing software.  I've had a good amount of experience with Final Cut Pro in high school and would consider myself fairly proficient in using it.

Since last post I learned that I could customize my blog by adding graphics to the page.  I've changed my blog title and side graphic to give it a Led Zeppelin theme, just for fun.

In my high school we had SmartBoards in almost every classroom.  In my county it was the only school with them in such large numbers, and I was wondering if anyone else has had any experience with them.  I think they're extremely useful tools for both teaching and learning, and hope that in the future I'll have the opportunity to use one in my classroom.

Post #1

From a purely theoretical initial viewpoint, I see the ARCS model (Attention, Relavence, Challenge, Satisfaction) as a highly accurate and effective teaching model.  In my experience as a student it seems as though the teachers to followed this model or something similar in fashion had the greatest positive effect on my education.  I think that this model coupled with the possibilities of education technology (such as in Ridgedale High) offer new, innovative, exciting, and challenging ways to increase the effectiveness of education.

In my education classes I've learned about different learning styles and ways of integrating them into a single lesson so that all students have an opportunity to understand the material regardless of learning style.  I believe my uses for this developing skill in the classroom are fairly straightforward.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting excited about being a teacher.  I'm hoping that the next couple of years here are kind to us as we prepare for future careers as teachers.  Seeing as how we'll be taking similar classes, we might even get to know each other (which would be cool).  So, here's to the future.  :)  woot!

Post #0

Going to a technology-oriented high school I was required to take many classes either focused around or integrated with technology. As an underclassman these courses were fairly boring and repetitive; mostly due to the fact that the instructor acted as though I had only recently laid eyes on a computer. However, as I graduated to more advanced classes and more freedom and electives things became better. In a digital design class I learned how to work with a range of Adobe software including Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Yet my most entertaining technology classes were my video and music classes. In music I learned music theory in a program called Sibelius, and composed two synthetic songs in a program called Cubase. Overall my experience with technology in high school has given me a fair amount of knowledge and experience with technology in a variety of ways, and I hope to be able to carry these experiences with me into the future.

In this class I hope to learn how to integrate technology into the classroom in ways that are innovative and fun. I already have some ideas regarding technology in the classroom, such as Smartboards, Blackboard, etc. I look forward to enhancing my future classroom with technology.

First off, I learned that I am extremely visual (I scored a 9! A 9!). Other than that I'm fairly balanced between the two sides in each aspect. More so, however, as I thought about each question I realized that my learning style or preference really depends upon the subject and the situation.