Course Reflection Even after completing this course I am obviously still old school. I had to write out what I wanted to post here in my response. This course was alot harder than I had anticipated. it is not my learning style and computers are not my best friend. My personal goal was to learn new things and try out features I had never tried or some even heard of. Some were fun - like Animoto but some were horrible like the online tools. Many of those things either don't apply to my position or I just odn't understand how to use them. But I tried and maybe I will be more organized through using the rememberthemilk.com. I would have liked at least one face to face with the instructor and participants to problem solve together. I played every tutorial many times but still needed to ask other people for help. My experience can be summed up in "All Educators should keep up-to-date on technology and even be asked to go beyond their comfort zone sometimes in order to be a lifelong learner like we expect of our students." Thanks for the opportunity. When I signed up I didn't even know about the camera and now I'm glad I stuck it out.

Online Tools I tried several online tools from the list. Here are the top four. 1. www.rememberthemilk.com 2. bibliogo.com 3. scriblink.com 4. authorstream.com The one I tried and would probably use the most is Remember the Milk. As I got into it I thought it might be similar to some of the features of our google calendar but it also interacts with google calendar. It will help me get organized as well as help my memory which is not what it once was. It review my upcoming tasks for the week and I can add new tasks or make changes to existing ones. I can check off what I've completed or postpone a task - which is nice of us procrastinators. It will let me look at tasks that are late or overdue and then there are just some tasks for me that I don't have a due date for but they need to be done within a couple of woeeks or so. There is a feature called Smart List where I can make a list based on criteria I define and they are automatically updated. I can share my task list and I can prioritize my list. I have dates for the 504 part of my job that I need to send out parent reminders as well as tell myself when the paperwork is due. They are all year long and all at different times. I currently write them on my calendar but then I need to locate my calendar several times a week. I also have PST dates for particular students that I need to remember and keep track of. Remember the Milk can help me with all that. I could actually get more organized and be less stressed about deadlines. Talk to me in a few months and see where I am with this. Everyone needs an accountability person.

Skype When I first signed up for this course I didn't know that a camera was part of the perk. I was excited when I heard that though, and I am planning on seeing my new grand baby often using it. I live 4 hours from my daughter and her soon to be born child, so Skype will help me stay in contact often and for Rhegan to get to know what her Nana and Papa look like. I don't want to be a stranger. I also don't want to miss out on milestones of her life, so my daughter can Skype me and show off Rhegan's new amazing feats that only she can do, of course. Seriously I am excited to try this out and make the miles seem few between us. Thanks for making this possible

I did explore Facebook and Twitter last week. I have to admit I wasn't a big fan before this of either one. I tend to be a very private person and sharing things online is not my thing. I did, however, after speaking with my brother who lives in California, he uses Facebook to keep in touch with my grown kids and other family members. He also is pretty private and uses it mainly to keep up with family and close friends. I can see how this would be useful and tend to break down the miles between us. He has me convinced I can participate and still stay fairly private. I did however, see some value in using Twitter in education. I have been a part of some online discussion groups and this gives you a chance to keep up with a discussion and only need to add a few comments. I can see how it could be beneficial and I'm glad it was also clear on some of the pitfalls of it as well.

I played with Jing and signed up for it. I can see how I could use it to show a home page of a website I was interested in sharing that show all the different tabs etc. they use. I really liked the Good Reads because there were some books I wanted to flag for future use and to see what others are reading that I could get into. I don't have a great deal of time to do this since I don't have a home computer so it really limits the amount of access time I have to play on these sites. I'm glad I know they are there anyway.

I used Photo Peach and Animoto and was amazed at what I actually produced. I could see myself using this for family much more than professionally. I liked the music touch to the pictures and the way to display the photo album. I think this would be a great way to share photos with family since all of my family is in either California or Washington state. I might be more apt to use this as a teacher if I had a regular classroom where we could share our experiences as a class throughout the year. This would lend itself to building the community a classroom strives for. Thanks for letting me explore.

Miscellaneous Picture Quiz
Miscellaneous Pictures on PhotoPeach