How did my first week go?

After the first 'in person' class, I left with many questions about the class. What is the overall goal for the course? How will the assignments play out? Will I understand everything? and to be honest will I be able to get an A? I do not know much about teaching with technology other than basic computer functions, the internet, and basic Smart Board operation. I am hopeful that I will gain lots of experience with different technologies that will be easily incorporated in my secondary classes in the future.

Exploring the Moodle site the first week was overwhelming! The site was very full and had lots of information which was, at times, confusing. I muddled my way through it, only to get to the first class very confused because I understand very little about the jargon and actual activities.

After the first class, I was able to write down information about the assignments, but I found myself not really understanding what I wrote the day after. I wanted to understand more about the group collaboration, what we would be working on. I also wished that we would have all the assignments for the course laid out in one place so I could get started on some of the ones in the future.

The whole first week I kept exploring the Moodle site and figuring out just how to get started. There was so much to choose from, that I ended up choosing blog, wiki, and pws sites that were easiest for me to use. Since I am such a beginner I knew that I did not want to overextend myself and wanted to try to keep things as straightforward as I could. I choose Blogger, Webs, and Wikispace for my websites. I also started a Gmail thread with my group members to discuss our logo, motto, and group name. I think we all had some great ideas! I was confused with some of the assignments, but after reading through them and playing around with them I was able to understand them a little better. I also knew that asking Dr. S and my classmates was the best way to make sure I was doing things right. I learned that the Blog and the PWS are not as confusing as I thought, but adding extras to make it 'pop' is difficult. I knew how to create a PDF file, which made the test file assignment easy. I still can't wait to find out more about the WOW assignment and what we will be doing with our Wiki's!