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Reflections Paper Applications of Technology in the Classroom Biography: Who Are You? When I started this assignment, I was very cold about it because I did not want to share any personal information with anybody else. I always felt like I would only share my information only with people I felt close enough to share my life. I included only enough information not to make this assignment completely impersonal. I still do not feel comfortable about telling other people about my life. Dr. Willis said that everybody could look at our presentations and I was not exactly thrilled about that. Well, after I finished this assignment, I was relieved because the other assignments would not “require” me to disclose any more personal information. The next issue for me was that I had a few group assignments. I hoped the people Dr. Willis had assigned to my group were not a “bunch of lazy tomatoes.” I certainly did NOT want to do the work for the entire group. The next assignment was not as threatening as the first one because it did not include personal disclosure. Finally something I could live with!!! The next assignment had to do with answering a survey about computers and software. TEKS Assignment. What Do You Know About Technology? This was something I could handle. I needed to answer what knowledge I had regarding computer software, applications, and so on. After I finished this survey, I realized that I did not know much. I also realized that a few of the things I knew had a different name. I was also learning a different language in this class. That definitely “perked me up.” I was certainly going to enjoy this! I liked to learn about computers and although I considered myself to have an appropriate knowledge, I soon found out I was wrong. I was starting to get my feet wet when I needed to join a specific group (not of people) to gather some information. This was something I could do. Let us Join a Group: This was very simple because all I had to do was sign up for a specific website and then, “join” a specific group. This was getting better by the minute I thought. I would definitely enjoy this class and had lots of hope that I would learn ALL about computers.

Communicating at UHCL: This assignment was not fair because this is what I do 10,000,000 times a day. It was definitely too good to be true and I was hoping the rest of the class would be just like this. If it was, I “had it made,” and it would be the easiest class I would ever take. Sending an email to the teacher was not a chore either. However, this would turn out not to be true because Dr. Willis had a few surprises in store for us. I had the feeling that she was already enjoying herself with the fate of her “victims,” her innocent students. She was preparing the way to put us all in her own “torture chamber.” The Computer and Stuff: This was a time guzzler but a very interesting time guzzler. It was very informative to learn the resources we have at the University. There is certainly more than I can use in a whole semester or more. It was good to know who is in charge, and who we can call in case we need. I really thought this assignment was well worth the time. Before You Buy Software: This was another time guzzler for me. Although it was kind of fun to evaluate two different kinds of kids software, I wasted some extra time doing this. Maybe this assignment would have been faster if I did not play as much with the software. My sons believe now that Graduate School is very fun because you get to play with “kiddie” software and there are not ever any spelling tests.

Looking at our Textbook: I was definitely grateful to Dr. Willis for not making us evaluate the “other” textbook. It was not as interesting as PLT Activity Guide. I thought it would be very fun and interesting to plan lessons with this book. A teacher would have the opportunity to be creative and at the same time, prepare a good lesson for her/his students. This guide is certainly a resource that every teacher should have and use. Myself, I will use this guide for as many lessons as possible. I will NOT sell this book back any time soon because it has many interesting activities that I can even use at home or with the Cub Scouts. Chat Chat Chat: This assignment was certainly very interesting. It was our first group assignment and we went back and forth trying to find each other, and trying to coordinate our schedules. It was certainly very challenging to get five or six different people’s schedules together at once. Finally, we did the work and on the day of the chat, we were able to show it. My thanks go to the people in my group that put their best effort forward to do this assignment. It was challenging to work in a group but we did it. Places on the World Wide Web: This was a very nice assignment because I could browse the Internet and get a reward for this. I choose a few sites that I thought teachers would use for teaching and planning. Some of the sites I choose were for kids, some for teachers, and some for both. This was a very enjoyable activity and very rewarding as far as learning.

Is this a Good Web quest? I really did confuse Dr. Willis with this assignment because at first she thought that I forgot to evaluate one of the web quests. Forget? Me? Never, ever. The only things I forget are my keys, my books, my purse, my glasses, my name, my age, my…..The list is almost endless, and I would not put it in this paper. The fact is that one of the web quests was worthless and I evaluated it as such. The second one was good to use for both teachers and students. When I chose these Webquests, I choose them randomly, so I did not know that there would be like that. Bringing the Internet into the Classroom: This was a lot of work. This was a lot of work. This was a lot of work. I promise I will not write this sentence 100 times. However much I do feel tempted to do that, I will not do it. I really did not like to have to put all of the standards that the lesson plan is going to cover, into the lesson plan. Let us face it; this is lots of legalese with which, teachers should not have to waste their time. Legalese is for lawyers, not for teachers. Self Portrait, Digital Image: Well, what can I say about this? It is obvious to anybody that putting my picture in there is not any work. Besides, my Halloween picture was very entertaining, and most of the kids that saw it thought it was a nice picture. What Canvas Size do I Need? Putting the different pictures in different sizes gave me a different perspective, and definitely will help me in the future. How can we better save a file with graphics? I somewhat rather enjoyed this in silence without admitting it to anyone else.

Graphics Table: This assignment did not stir any emotions on me neither positive nor negative. It is just not the kind of exciting thing. I did it, and that was all. The fact that it was just about putting all the graphics in the assignment and looking at the sizes of the files was not something that was neither difficult nor easy. Thank goodness, we are moving on to something else. Let’s Discuss it #1: This was a very good assignment because I always enjoy the discussion board. The assignment was to for us to “create” a school with the ideal software and hardware, and how to help all of the students with the resources we would acquire. All of the different people in the class brought up very interesting points and it was enjoyable to discuss the issues back and forth. Technical Instructions: Cooolll!!! I always wondered how they did this kind of instructions and now I can do it all by myself. I am a big girl now and this is a useful thing to do to help students learn different kinds of software Newsletter and Newsletter PDF Version: This is something I DID like. Thank you so much Dr. Willis for giving us this assignment. It was interesting and very useful to learn to save something on PDF. I think more teachers need to learn this skill because it would help them enormously to do their work.

Deciding Where to Go: I do not think I could explain why and how this assignment dragged on for so long. While I loved it at first, I began to dislike it when we had to redo it, redo it, and redo it again. This caused lots of grief in our group among other things. Since we did not have enough knowledge and enough resources to go around, it turned into a real nightmare for several weeks. I saw and heard things that I wish I had not because of this assignment. On the other hand, this assignment was indeed a learning experience that I will not forget for a while. I thought that being able to make a webquest for the students is very important information. I knew that once I learned a little bit more about webquests, they might be a very valuable resource. The Quest Plan: This was an assignment I cannot feel either warm or cool about. Our group divided it and the people who worked on it did an outstanding job. M&M Candy: This was the most delicious assignment we got from Dr. Willis. I really enjoyed all three bags of M&M’s. Thank you again Dr. Willis. The assignment, however, took me to realms that I had not encountered before. On the positive side, I did learn to use spreadsheets after all. I had battled for years with this, and refused to learn it because I simply did not like it. I had to work extra on this but after all the knowledge I gained it was just fine.

Merge and Go: This reflection includes all three assignments, and I will be very honest on this. Did not like it and did not enjoy it. It is the kind of thing that I did not care to learn, even if it is useful. I rather liked the finished product, but not the process. Yes, I will say that again. Database: This assignment was worse than going to the dentist and having Brussels sprouts all at once. I imagine that is the way Dr. Willis uses to torture her students. This must be her “personal torture chamber.” in addition, cannot imagine why someone would put this in the curriculum. Learning with Our Eyes, Storyboards: This was fun, and I liked it. It was very nice to be able to use “kiddie” software. It is just like when I am at a Pre-K classroom and I am paid to color, sing, and dance with the kids. Although my product was not perfect, neither am I. This is where I was able to start introducing Joey the Alligator to my classmates. I sincerely hoped they liked him because he is the handsomest alligator I have ever seen. Let’s Discuss It #2 This assignment was good and this is all I want to say about it. We have to discuss whether we were for software and hardware in the classroom, or we were against it. I found out many very interesting points of view. Although my classmates disagreed with my opinion, I thought they did great. Fantastic discussion!

Interactive Fun: This was a blast, thank you, Dr. Willis. It was really good to play with Power Point to make the lesson I would teach about an alligator. The presentation came out not looking shabby at all. I showed it to Ms. Kesler’s four grade class at Bay Elementary. She and the students seemed to like it. After the sounds were in, it was a lot of fun, and even some of the kids in first grade liked it. Interactive Integration: Another boring lesson plan that needs to have all of the TEKS and TAKS paraphernalia. I think these assignments are better done to give them to a lawyer than to a teacher. Teachers should teach. Maybe the administrators should use these legal terms and usage. Certainly is very confusing to me that we are required to do these kinds of lesson plans. The Spinning: I felt like a spider when I started to do this assignment. This assignment however, turned out to be a cause of disagreement between my husband and me. This program is definitely not user-friendly and most of a great part of my classmates did have a big problem with this program. I was no exception to this problem and "served my time" while doing this assignment. I wish we had been able to do it on a different kind of software. My husband, who has been programming computers for over 20 years, looked at it and was not exactly pleased with it. Finally, I finished the assignment but there was plenty of frustration.

Let’s Discuss It #3: This discussion was very hard because I had to be against my beliefs. It got finished and I think it went well. I always liked the contact with my classmates in these discussions. It was very interesting to see people who thought otherwise to give support to an opposite point of view. Multimedia Through Your Eyes: I had the opportunity to look at other people’s Power Point presentations. I liked it very much but the idea to “grade” my classmates is not very exciting. I enjoyed .Web Pages Through Your Eyes: In this assignment, I was amazed at how people managed to create (in my extremely humble opinion) fantastic great web pages; given the software we were given. We all did a great job!!! The Guides Through Your Eyes: I loved getting the PLT certificate because it was a very enjoyable book to work in the assignments for this book. Again, I do want to keep it and use if for a while. Well, How Did It Go? Overall, it did not go that bad and the class was very challenging. I have been known to love a challenge, or so I have been told. This class had certainly plenty of that starting with the web quest. Here we go: evaluate another’s group web quest.

Accessing Your Portfolio: This was a little confusing because I did not understand the instructions. I am still not sure whether this went through or not. I will know when it receives a grade. Uploading Assessment Rubric to UAS: This assignment had confusing directions for me and I still not sure that I submitted it properly. Post Technology Applications Inventory This survey did not take me much time because it was the same survey we did at the beginning of the year only now I knew a lot more information at it. I learned most of this language. This class is almost over. I am really very excited to be finishing with it. Well, How Did it Go? It did not go bad at all. I think the teachers who take this class are very smart because the assignments in this class will allow them to plan their lessons with more technology. Our group divided the assignments in pieces and two people got to edit the evaluation of the webquest. It was a very interesting process and we finished in just a couple of hours. Looking Back: Some of the lessons learned will not last if I do not practice. Note to myself: Do not take another online class. I really need the personal interaction with classmates and teacher and this was not the best for my learning. Although I did learn many skills, my learning

style is not one that I can take an online class and be satisfied. This class has so much information that maybe it should be divided in two semesters. The PCT system was not always responsive and did not work to many people’s satisfaction. Go to the next page for a surprise.

Adriana Noemi Otero Sambido Sicotte