"Getting to Know you"

The past 2 weeks of Moodle has been an "eye opening" experience. I was a bit intimidated and definitely overwhelmed at first by the amount of information posted on the class site and this was before even reading Week 1! I took a fellow student's advice who has taken online classes with Dr. S before and told me to go down the list and click each item one by one. This was really helpful and made it less overwhelming to complete the readings, test files, discussion forums and making the 3 personal sites. I find blogging an interesting; but not an unfamiliar process since I do have a Facebook. I have information filled out about me and in the past have written notes; which is similar to blogging. The one difference is blogger has so many features that it makes it fun and easy to blog!

I liked the power point information on chapter one of the class textbook as well as the LoTi levels. As I posted in the discussion forum I had no idea what LoTi was and did not realize levels existed in teaching and comprehending technology. I thought the information was insightful as to how the college I am enrolled in as well as the school's I have visited, I ranked a low LoTi level. I was disappointed because I thought the college and the schools would have been at a much higher LoTi level. It took me awhile to understand the layout of FreeWebs where I have my personal website; but once I understood how to add, edit and delete pages it became much more enjoyable and I devoted a lot of time in creating the look and feel of the site. My Wiki is in the beginning stages; but I found PBWiki easy to navigate and post pictures and information.

I also thought all the videos in week 1 and week 2 were not only interesting; but surprising as to the information revealed. I did not know that only 13% of teachers used technology in the classroom. This could have lasting negative consequences on the teachers as well as the students because many young students know how to access websites, download music for their iPods/MP3 players and talk to their friends via online chatting. The students are or will be above their teachers and will not be allowed to express their knowledge; if the teacher does not know or is not willing to learn about technology. I also did not know until this class that Web 2.0 meant chatting online, pod casts, posting blogs, wikis, personal websites, staying connected to the internet via cellular phones and having a class online. I was not sure what it meant initially; but after watching the video it makes sense why they are calling it Web 2.0.

Overall I think the first class meeting went well and the most memorable moment of the class was when the entire class was on Elluminate Live and a student had a camera on her computer and we saw a video of her. I did not know one could post a live image of themself in the class sessions and think it is a wonderful tool to have in class! I also met with my group (group 4) twice; once on Monday from 7:30p.m. to 9:00p.m. and once today from 10:00a.m. to almost 12:00p.m. The first session was a bit "bumpy" due to we were trying to get used to the format of WizIQ as well trying not to interrupt or talk over each other. After a few minutes though we got the gist of it and had a succesful discussion about Moodle, course assignments and questions we had. We met again today to address any questions and/or concerns as well as discuss the following week assignments. This was particularly helpful because we posted each video from Week 3 into WizIQ to watch and make comments on together as a group instead of trying to do it on our own.