Course Reflection

The IT 365 Computer Course at the University of Southern Mississippi taught me several things about the use and application of integrating technology into a classroom. I learned about several methods and resources that will be very helpful to me when I am a teacher. I was taught how to create and find free (that’s the best part) tools and software that will help me be a proficient, flexible, organized teacher. Just a few of the things I learned was: how to create or find worksheets that I can print out, how to create quizzes that can be taken online by students to help them study or printed out to administer to the class, how to design my own blogfolio and my own website that is accessible to the general public or a selected audience, and I also learned how to use the assistive functions that are built into most computers to help students with disabilities. I think the assignment that I did the best on was my website. I tried to make it look professional and informative. It was my favorite assignment from this class. I feel as if I will use the information that I learned from creating this website, as well as the website, or one like it, in the future. The assignment that I had the most difficulty with was actually the Kidsperation assignment. It was mainly because it was hard to maneuver the objects the way I wanted them, because the screen would not would not open into a full-screen so I had a difficult time seeing all of my objects. With continued effort I eventually got the concept map to look (relatively) the way I wanted it to. When I use this software in the future, I will be sure to plan ahead to make sure that I will be able to fit my objects the way I want them on the map.

            This information I learned in this class taught me many useful ways to integrate technology into my future classroom. Not only will the software I learned how to use be beneficial to me, but it will also be beneficial to my students and their parents/guardians. Students can use Kidsperation to create concept maps to brainstorm ideas or learn about different topics, or create their own short movies for projects. Parents will be informed of the necessary information about my class from my easy-to-navigate website. I will be able to quickly create quizzes, worksheets, and rubrics to use for my students to supplement lessons and provide grading timely grading results. This class taught me many ways to use technology in any classroom, and I will certainly use this invaluable information in my teaching career.