When I first started this Master's program, I was expecting to learn several new techniques to implement in my classroom, as well as hands on activities for my own amusement and benefits.  I have received that and much more!  I have learned more about HTML, that google provides a free version of word and powerpoint that I will most use forever, and video making skills among many other skill.  I am unbelievable happy that I decided to tackle this new challenge in my life.  Even if writing personal thoughts which and intuitive and meaningful has proven to be a difficult area fr myself.  I really am looking forward to the other classes.

As I was going through the Dreamweaver PDF to create my own Dreamweaver webpage, as my headache began to settle in with the frustration of creating this webpage from what I believe is scratch, I can't help bnt think to myself, "Why in the world would I even bother with this?"  I do have some experience with sharepoint designer, which I found was similar to dreamweaver, but I still don't think that I would use either of these programs, especially since there are several programs in existence now that can be utilized to create webpages, such as Wordpress of Google docs.  Personally, although useful to know, I don't think I will use dreamweaver unless I really have to.

Learning how to edit movies was such an awe inspiring moment in my life.  I couldn´t help but think about all the directors in this world, especially Quentin Taratino who learned to make films in this simple manner.  Though it was unfortunate that our practice video sufferred a mishap at the very end with the addition of music, very embarassing, it was still fun creating such a video.  Since I am currently in Mexico with my fiancee who makes cakes daily, my first video may just be a cake making video staring my girlfriend.

Monday's handout session was interesting!  Due to my audio malfunction, watching other's profession IT society was a challenge.  Without the commentary from my fellow classmates, it was difficult to appreciate all the great and various IT society that were available to me.  Though, Google hangout was fun to play with.  It was fun being a pirate for an hour! Ar!

This past week's lecture was very entertaining.  The presentations were extremely enlightening.  Although I emphasized in cognitive psychology as an undergraduate, I thought the presentation on cognitive learning frameworks was the best presentation.  The prezi presentation was visually stunning and creative which made the presenters look very credible in the IT field.  The presentation of information with the added kinesthetic activities were ingenuous.  It really made me wish I could think of something so creative.

Well, I now know what I'm going to use to create my WebPortfolio.  Initially, when I heard that I had to create a WebPortfolio, I was a little nervous.  I wasn't sure what my WebPortfolio would look like.  Now that I have been introduced to WordPress, I feel significantly more confident that I will create a decent WebPortfolio show casing any work that I create. 

Several times, while surfing the web, I was always interested in how certain logos and buttoms were created.  With this introduction to graphics, I now have the tools and resources to create a "cool" webpage with all the dingy graphics I would need.  My WebPortfolio is going to be the tall tells of webPortfolios with this graphic features.

Learning HTML this week was such a great experience, though I know it was made significantly easier than creating your own HTML webpage from scratch.  My next goal would be to take ten hours from my life and write my own HTML webpage.  Though, to take a mindset from Andy Warhol who believed that creating new art was pointless since so much already existed.  Why learrn HTML when I could use several other webpages which do all the grunt work for me already?

Even more importantly, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Google Docs.  Who would have known that the world of google had so many great applications that one could use without having to purchase a single thing. I remember being introduced to google docs by google, but I still had no idea how to use it.  This week's past lecture was extremely enlightening, in the non-buddhist sense.   I am most definitely going to tell all my students that several of the software that people pay hundreds and thousands of dollars for can be easily accessible online and for free.  If I had known previously that all of these apps existed, I would most definitely not have purchased Microsoft Word or any other Microsoft based products.

I had a really great experience conducting the online conference.  This wasn't my first time sharing a computer screen and speaking to another individual.  I have conducted classes via online conferencing where I had to share my screen.  But it was such a great experience learning a new community sharing screen.  I thought it was great that I had difficulty with the volume because now I know how to fix a prospective problem such as the one I experience.  Not to mention that several of the websites that were shared were simply awesome.  Websites that I could personally use and implement within my own classes.

I guess using awesome and a really great experience could be seen as superficial comments.  In that case, I found that the usage of online meetings was a waste of time.  Personally, I find that online meetings are a waste of time.  I would definitely prefer to hold online class sessions in person because more gets done and individuals involved in the meeting actually have to focus.  Online meetings is a simple way for individuals to hide the fact that they are not paying attention to another person while they are speaking.  Virtual meetings have just make distracting oneself from the real task at hand significantly easier.  In conclusion, I don't think that I would conduct virtual meetings with my own class because I know the pitfalls of such a meeting.  But, I still think out virtual meeting was awesome!

I am very interested in presenting this week via the Adobe meeting room.  I have never before made a presentation like this before, but I look forward to the experience and adding this experience to my repertoire.  I have experience creating a Web 2.0 site, but now I have an opportunity to check our some real professional Web 2.0 websites and learn from them.

EDIT 451 Week 1 reflections

Today was the first day of class for EDIT 451.  It was a very interesting day!  I am very excited to learn more technological information and how I will be able to implement such material into my own teaching.  Besides learning that food might be very expensive if I continue to purchases dinner on campus after work and that the dollar menu is a life save.  I also learned that there is absolutely no need for me to purchase Microsoft Word/Powerpoint/Excel because I could just use Google Drive, which essentially performs the same functions.  Needless to say, I'm extremely happy! 

With that said, the first hefty assignment that I must perform is an assignment that is reminiscent of coursework that I had to perform in AP U.S. History in High School.  Happy Days! No pun intended!