Reflection: Week 8

What?

This week in class, we covered "Webquest 2" and "Webquest Final." We discussed the importance of this Webquest because it is a key assignment in the education department. We also discussed a few other components of this assignment, like the peer reviews, and Webquest rubric. Our completed webquest is not due this Wednesday, but the following Wednesday, March 17.

So What?

One of the key components of this assignment that I learned this week was how to turn this assignment in properly. I learned that there are two versions of PowerPoint that must be used throughout this assignment. One version is ".ppt," which allows others to see and edit information on the presentation. The other version is ".pps," which means viewers can only see the PowerPoint, but they do not have the ability to make any adjustments to it. This information is vital to understand because this is a group project, and others need to be able to have the ability to edit the work.

Understanding this information also helps me in other classes because I am often collaborating with my peers on lesson plans and schoolwork. Just this week, one of my peers wanted to "see" a PowerPoint I had created for a student teaching experience. I e-mailed her this PowerPoint in a ".ppt" format, which was a mistake because she did not only want to see my presentation, but she erased my name off the front page and typed her own. I saw her do this and told her that it was not okay because I had spent many hours on this project. I am in favor of collaboration and I think it is necessary in education, but this peer was copying my work and calling it her own. Now I know in the future, that I need to be extra aware of the format my PowerPoints are in before I send them to others.

Now What?

Even though we were mostly reviewing the Webquest assignment in class this week, it was helpful to refresh my memory and learn more details about what components make a good PowerPoint and the importance of key assignments. In the education program, we are required to create a portfolio of all our key assignments before graduation. Although this is a long and difficult process to go through, it is beneficial to our teaching experience. Through these key assignments, we are able to reflect on the progress we have made as educators, share our best work with others, and have material available if future employees are ever curious about the projects we completed in college.

School can be difficult, but it is incredibly rewarding. Each week, I struggle through completing tests, papers, projects, and activities in school, but it is always worth the effort. Learning how to create webquests is one of the projects that has been a little stressful. I may not even use webquests often in my class, but I can promise that I will be using PowerPoint a great deal, which is the major reason I am glad we are completing this project. Both my future students and I will benefit from the knowledge I gain in this instructional media class.

Video Reflection:

In a perfect world, everyone would be offered equal education. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people on our planet who receive no or low-quality education. I was inspired by the video we watched this week, "Education for All," which showed that is is possible to reach out to countries where schooling is not available. Because of technology, we are much more capable to offer education to those unfortunate countries that might not have enough resources to conduct proper education. This technological advancement is amazing and will benefit many knowledge-hungry souls. One of my goals as a teacher is to make each student feel important and cared for in my class. I would love to have an opportunity to teach my content through technology and be able to make a difference in not only my students who are in my physical classroom, but students all over the world.