Blog #2

As a Career and Technology Business teacher, I have been truly impressed with all the information that I have learned so far in this class. I didn't know what to expect, and I'm glad I took this class first. The technology acquired will pave the way and enhance the learning in my other classes. I'm so excited about the many tools learned that I have shared them with family and friends. I believe part of the learning process is sharing with others! I will be setting up my eportfolio to showcase all that I have learned and accomplished.

INTERACTIVE POWERPOINT
Our first class activity helped me to think about my current technology skills. What do I really know about new and emerging technologies and what do I need to know to stay up-to-date and informed as a teacher? The interactive powerpoint was not an issue because part of my curriculum in business education is to teach my students these skills from powerpoint. The issue was the answer to the question above. Through the interactive powerpoint, I determined the skills that I need and want to gain from taking this class. I am now on the path to obtaining my technology goals.

CREATING MY BLOG
In my interactive powerpoint, one skill I wanted to learn was about creating a blog. I didn't even know what one was before taking this class. It sounded interesting and I love to learn new things. The process was very simple, and I have had so much fun setting it up and customizing the page elements. I have even gone a step further by adding links, a welcome message in glitter, and a picture slideshow using http://photobucket.com/, another resource learned in class.

RSS AND BLOGLINES
As soon as we created our blog accounts, I wanted to check out other classmates' blogs. This would help me to get to know my classmates. First, I needed to know their blog address. Several students emailed the class with their information. Over the weekend, I was able to visit their blogs one by one. I checked several times before the next class day. Upon reading the course notes, I couldn't wait to create a bloglines account. The example of relating the bloglines account to an email system was easy to understand. Now, with my bloglines account set up, I can access everyone's blog from one location, and I can see when something new has been posted. This has been a great timesaving resource. I have also set up through an RSS feed the National Geographic website and CNN to update me with new information. As long as a website has an RSS feed, it can be added to your bloglines account.

DELICIOUS
This internet tool is used for social bookmarking of websites. With this account, you can access your favorite websites from any computer. It allows for many web resources to be shared with others through the use of a network. I like the idea of being able to tag or put into categories your websites for better organization. I also like having available websites that others have used or found to be helpful. In addition, this website could be used in place of search engines when you need fast and reliable information.

These activities have made a tremendous impact on my learning of new technology skills. Having a blog account is a great form of communication as learned from listening to the podcast with Tim Tyson. For the coming school year, I plan to set up a blog for my students and parents to access from school, home, and/or work. Furthermore, I can enhance not only my critical analysis of information on the internet but my students as well by using the del.icio.us website to evaluate other bookmarked websites before using the information to research a topic.