Final Thoughts!

Going through the 23 Things project has been quite an interesting and very educational experience. Over the past few years I have taken several Appalachian Technology courses; so, I wasn't sure if I would learn anything new through the 23 things. As I reflect on my learning, I have to say that I learned a lot. To be quite honest, almost everything that we covered was new to me. Although I had had experience with many of these topics, I hadn't had much experience actually manipulating and using them.

My favorite discovery exercises were Activities 5, 6, 9, & 10. I loved 5 because I was thrilled to learned about Google Docs. I never knew that anything like it existed. It has made my life so much easier as a teacher because I can now save my documents to the web and have them at school when I need them. (Bye! Bye! Flash Drive) Week 6 was great because of the on-line electronic books. I am so excited to have those books to share with my class! We have actually already used a couple of Aesop's Fables. As I progressed into week 9 I was so excited to learn about Twitter. Although I like Facebook better, I was finally glad to know how Twitter is used and why it is so popular. The final activity 10 was FUN! FUN! FUN! I loved playing the image generators. They were very fun and kids would love to use them. I also enjoyed using Shelfari and having access to book reviews and my own book shelf.

I guess my biggest take-away from this course is how much I truly did learn. Like I said because of my Master's program I felt that I had learned a lot. However, through this course I realized that I have a lot more left to learn. Technology is always changing!

The only thing differently I would do with this course is allow more time for its completion. I wish that I could have more time to slowly go through and manipulate and truly use each site suggested. However, I felt as if I brushed over some rather than thoroughly studying them. I do like the fact that the course was on-line and we were able to complete it at our convenience.

Overall this was a great experience and I lookf forward to taking similar courses in the future!