Wow! I can't believe how easy it was to setup my own blog! This is my second attempt at setting up a blog. I was not able to activate my blog on another site I chose and I did not have time to figure it out. There were other free sites to explore. It was easy to get an account and begin my blog on this site, recommended by one much wiser than me :)
My intention for this blog is to reflect on my learning about the emerging technologies we are incorporating into the ITS program. I am trying to think of the last time I learned a new tool technology tool....maybe 2002? This reflection process, I hope, will help me to better understand the use of this tool in education. I don't ever think I've had to learn a tool outside of the safe walls of a structured IT course, where the implications for teaching and learning were taught to me by those who had first hand experience in using the tools with students. It is really an exciting feeling and reminds me that I am becoming more of a producer of knowledge rather than a consumer of knowledge.
As I write this I feel so exposed. I am not quite sure that I am comfortable sharing my thinking this way. Yes, I have written portfolio reflections but somehow this has a different feel to it. Maybe its more of a jotting down of my thoughts rather than a structured What did I learn? So why is this important? and Now what am I going to do? I am not a journal writer but I believe there are many benefits to this process and it is not too late to become a journal writer, right?
I do believe though that by learning these new tools, I am stepping back into the shoes of my own students and feeling the same types anxieties, frustrations, and thrills that comes with learning something new. Recently I have felt that I've lost that connection with my students as one does when they teach the same topics each year. I have forgotten for the most part the frustrations of web publishing and the exhilarations of viewing my pages on the Internet. This experience is one way to develop my sense of empathy and an important part of my whole new mind.
