Blog Entry #1: Individual Technology Assessment

So, for my newest Graduate level class SLIS 5720 "Instructional Materials Production and Use" I have been asked to create a blog. I'm actually really looking forward to learning how to blog. I missed the district's class (Who Let the Blogs Out) and would really like to learn to incorporate blogging into my classroom. I've also considered creating a personal blog with book reviews, I read about three a week and would love to just put my opinions out there. But for now, I'm on a strict schedule with exact topics that have to be covered for my class.

Today's topic: "As an educator, what are your present strengths and weaknesses in technology? How do you plan to use your strengths? How do you plan to address the weaknesses?"

Schools have changed so much since when I was a student. We used chalk boards and overhead projectors. I've been lucky to have helped open a new middle school with the largest amount of technology available I have ever seen. I use technology on an everyday basis, I use the data projector in my classroom to display the Bell Ringer for each day's class. My students use the Elmo to display their own work.

For one of the first assignments for my class, we have an AV Equipment Checklist. We are supposed to have an expert (my school librarian) sign off on the fact that I know how to properly use several pieces of technology. The first one on the list was an overhead projector. I talked with my school librarian and found out that my school does not even own an overhead projector.

My school offers several other types of technology that I have not found the time to train myself on, such as a Smart Board. I feel that one of my strengths is having all of this technology available to me and also my eagerness to learn how to use them. After enrolling in this class, I came to the realization that times are changing, and quickly. I need to take advantage of learning these new technologies before I am left in the dust.

I asked my husband to help me out with what some of my weaknesses would be. He started ticking off on his fingers things such as "not being familiar with command line interfaces on non-Windows based operating systems." Let's just say that my husband works in a LINUX/UNIX environment doing OS admin and application development (or so he tells me). Hopefully I won't be falling short on any technological knowledge any time in the future. But as for weaknesses, nothing really comes to mind. As this class continues, I'm sure that list will grow.