While I am skeptical about blogs and blogging for students, I excited about the possibilities for adult stakeholders. This could be an easy way to get feedback from stakeholder in a real immediate fashion. Blogging could also be a way for stakeholders of a school or school district to have "class with an expert" from a distance. For instance, if my school is implementing a new school wide program, it might be useful to work with a professional who has already implemented the same program. Not only could I have their support with the initiative but blogging would be much more cost effective.

In regards to blogs and blogging in education, I have a few concerns. First, I am concerned about the level of engagement students would have. If there was a system in place that students could blog and receive blogs in return from others they recognized, they might be more engaged I also worry about the consistent supervisions of the blogs by all the teachers. I know that most teachers are diligent about these types of supervision issues, but reality is, not all teachers are.

I have to admit, that I am a bit ambivalent about blogs and blogging. While I agree that kids are more "digital natives" than adults I am not sure that this is a technology that students would buy in to. I do believe that blogging could be a intriguing way to incorporate staff meetings. Especially because the staff meetings I sit through now are torture. And those who have opposing views don't have a real forum to speak up. While I am not sold, I am not ruling it out.

I really believe that I am a life long learner. I love to learn new things. I am fascinated by new technologies and how they apply into real world application. Furthermore, I have learned much about myself from both of the courses I have taken. I have learned that I have to be a campus leader in regards to technology usage if I am going to be able to expect the same kind of behaviors from my colleagues. My attitude is positive and excited about the possibilities. I would love to go back and teach my colleagues what I have learned, especially about the Texas Long-Range Plan and the STaR Chart.

I was successful carrying out the course assignments, except for the web conferencing. I do not know anybody with an internet connection and a webcam. I enjoyed reading the articles and gained technology insight from each, however, I still have trouble reading articles and books online. This technology is still difficulty for me to transition to. When I read to learn, I like to highlight and be able to flip back and refer to previous points of interest. For me, reading online, hinders this.

There are a few outcomes that I would have liked to have learned more about. For instance, I would like to actually have more hands on training preparing lessons from different content areas with the technology integration. It is easy for me to see how to implement technology usage while in social studies, but I am unclear how to do this in other content areas. I think what prevented me from achieving this goal is just not doing the actual work itself. I would have to sit down with the necessary technology experts and curriculum experts to generate these lessons.

I currently am a reading intervention teacher. I am not sure if I can't implement many of the outcomes I learned in the course. However, I have filled several roles in my tenure as a teacher, which I could utilize. As a social studies teacher I thing the wikis and the blogs could connect my students with an audience all over the world. I am also the facilitator for our school wide behavior management program called Positive Behavior Intervention Support team and I could certainly use blogs to create an open discussion forum for the teachers and I to communicate. As for my goal to be an administrator, I know much more about the Texas Long Range Technology Plan and the STaR Chart.

It is difficult for me to think about where I began this course. And I am not sure what I expected get out of it. While I can do many things on the computer such as: Powerpoint, Excel, and Word, I am not savvy with internet technologies. I certainly gained awareness of the Texas Long Range Technology Plan, the STaR Chart, RSS feeds, blogs, and what it means to be a digital native. I think I achieved the outcomes I expected plus some. More than anything I gained a better appreciations of what schools can do to utilize the technology they have and how the state of Texas is addressing the changing technology landscape.