Introduction Post

     During my time in this education technology class, I hope to learn a set of valuable skills and become well versed in several online tools that will be useful to me in my future as an educator. Every student, including myself has been subject to a boring teacher at some point in their education, and having a teacher that cannot captivate and hold your interest throughout the class can truly be detrimental to one's learning. For this reason, I aim to teach a class that students look forward to each day because they know that the lesson plan will be engaging and even fun. So, to be more specific, I wish to learn about the use of sites such as Padlet, Canva, Blogger and several others that can provide that spark to my teaching in the future.

    Going into this class, I can say that I have a solid foundation when it comes to the use of technology for work as well as for creative outlets. In high school, I took two years of digital design class in which I learned and became certified in the use of PowerPoint, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects and Premiere Pro. I have used these programs to create logos, flyers and banners for various events throughout my school. That being said, my experience in the use of technology directly for teaching is somewhat limited. I have completed over 100 hours of volunteer work as a technology tutor however, this position generally only required simple use of technology such as making collaborative word documents in which the patron can list their issues, and I can provide guides on how to solve them. Therefore, I am looking forward to discovering more tools and getting more experience with using them in teaching this semester.

    As for personal learning networks that I am currently involved in, several come to mind. One of which is especially prevalent in my day-to-day life right now. That PLN is one surrounding my hobby of bowling. Since the age of eight, I have been very interested in the sport of bowling and have devoted an awful lot of time and effort towards becoming the best bowler that I can. My efforts and the help of my personal learning network have culminated with me now joining the bowling club here at Florida State University. However, rather than the work being done, my personal learning network has actually expanded. Prior to joining the club, I had resources such as past coaches, a few professional bowlers I have connections to and online sites such as CoachNow and Instagram but now, I my PLN includes new coaches and many teammates with more experience than myself. Additionally, these teammates have introduced me to a few apps that I can use to keep track of my scores and other statistics throughout practice. Although I never knew the term for this network until enrolling in this class, it has truly been indispensable in my progression as a bowler. 

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