My Refletion Paper

Justin D. Marsh
Dr. Harrison Yang
Education 505 - Web 2.0
Final Paper - 8/15/2010

In taking this course, I was able to learn new techniques that will intrinsically motivate students to learn and try new activities both in and out of the classroom. BY creating my own blog, or having a webquest online, students are able to continually work on and understand assignments with little verbal instruction. This is an asset to any classroom, as it both allows students to work on their own and budget their time; which prepares them for college, and also make sit easier for them to understand what is due when they miss school.

This has assisted in my lifelong learning goals as I am continually learning new ways to bring “life” into the classroom, and leaving a lot of the lecture portion of learning to the internet. This enables me to have a more hands on approach with the students and concentrate more on the more :fun” or meaningful science stuff as students are able to enhance their own learning by spending time on my webpage or blog pages via the internet.

I was pleasantly surprised on how informative and helpful the assignments were for this course. The assignments for this course are most definitely things I can use in my own classroom this coming fall I can now have students complete and acid rain project, via the webquest with little verbal instruction provided by me, and through my webliography, I have provided copious amounts of links for them to enhance and expand upon their learning. I do not view any of these assignments as “busy work” as they will absolutely be used in my classroom in the near future.

In today’s busy world, it is advantageous to complete required coursework at one’s own pace. Being a teacher, and finishing out the school year yields a hectic environment with little free time to do what one would like to do. Living over an hour from SUNY Oswego makes taking a course there difficult has two and a half hours for each class attendance is required for driving. Therefore, I believe that this online graduate course was convenient and practical for the life of a full time employee, and I would definitely take a discovery course like this one again in the future.