The challenge of this course was frankly getting over my fear of what was going to be asked of me within this term. Honestly, the extent of my experience with education technology, prior to this class, was minimal at best and getting over my fear was the greatest challenge. To be even more frank, every artifact that was given started every Monday with a small myocardial infarction, decreasing to an anxiety attack by Wednesday and ending finally on Friday with an ease and confidence that anything could be accomplished.
The combining of a research presentation with a format such as VoiceThread was a huge challenge, which of us really likes the sound of their own voice and not to mention the all the errors associated with the initial attempts in trying to get it right. Resources that were provided and some that I found on YouTube that had me focus as if I was talking to my audience instead of a computer screen made the task so much easier. Which brings me to my favorite artifact that was on the Digital Divide. This had a profound impact on me, first of all my knowledge of the topic was scant at best and after researching and compiling my data, it gave me insight as to not only do we have huge financial differences in this country but we have a continual growing technological chasm that separates these same classes.
I did mention that in the courses that I teach, the usage of education technology is minimal to nonexistent but I took my presentation on Blended Learning and made my case to my program director, the dean of students and the president of the college to implement a pilot program on one cohort of students that would allow me to continue lecturing in the traditional sense but also incorporate online learning/tutoring via Google Hangout and Google Docs to run concurrent with the students within the clinical setting. Thus far, although to soon to tell, the response from the students using the addition of online tools has been overwhelmingly positive. Simply put, the fact that I was able to quickly acquire this technology and then pass it on to my students makes me excited about what the remainder of the Education Technology program holds in store for me.
Frederick Reyes: EDTECH Learning Log 