Blog 7 - Professional Learning Network

I felt that I had a positive experience with all the different professional learning networks that I tried. The DIGG reader was a great experience because I could select the areas of interest to me to show up in my feed and just read those. Normally, I would have to spend some time to get through all the headlines to find the ones that interest me. I could narrow down the information into a much smaller list. I can definitely see how the DIGG reader would be useful in education, and I plan on using it. Twitter is likely the most useful in my classroom. I can have students utilize it to take polls on what activities they would like to participate in, or give feedback about the activity from that day. Students could also see what others are doing and connect through common interests. The students would need to be warned about the negative aspects of social media. An issue that I can see coming up is that not every student will have access to the technology required to use twitter. A lot of students have smart phones, but there are some that cannot afford them. If their parents have them, then that is an option. The use of school computers could also be another option. 

Blog 6 - Self Reflection

I remember at the start of the quarter, I didn’t quite know what to expect with this class. I had minimal experience with web design, but I was a little intimidated with the potential quantity of information I would have to absorb. As the class went on, I felt comfortable with the pace of the class. With the exercises in the book and the time spent in class, I could learn various parts about coding. Using Dreamweaver really helped with learning the content as well. I feel that the most rewarding assignment would have to be the book exercise table. Creating the table and adding the links to each assignment was difficult, but I felt that it really showed how far I have come since the first week of the quarter. I could showcase the work from the first five weeks.

The biggest challenge so far was the prospect of creating a website for the final project. I had been thinking about ideas and what I want it to look like. I decided that I want to make a website that is fully functional and can be used when it is done. I hope that it turns out the way I want it to, but I know it will take time.