Self Improvements and Challenges

I have made tremendous growth over the term, in terms of my technological skills, because of this class. The first week I thought, "oh no- Word documents- easy! I've done this a million times before!" But a week or two later I was stumped and had to pretty much self-teach myself how to do the assignments given. One big thing that I personally accomplished was to not instantly panic. I learned to calm down, take deep breaths, not future trip, read all the directions carefully, and do one thing at a time. That was something that I had to learn quickly, or I knew I wouldn't survive the rest of the class. In terms of technology skills, I know I have made self-improvements when I learned how to navigate the Storybird assignment. I felt like I did that with confidence and I also feel pretty fluent in Google Docs now. Google Docs was something I had never heard of before, and it is a pretty awesome program and I appreciate its usefulness now. My biggest challenge in terms of assignments in this course was the digital storytelling project. That was so hard! It took me a long time and an all-nighter to figure that one out! I overcame this challenge by asking for help and realizing I can't do everything by myself. My friend Fran came over and helped me and together we finally figured it out! The non-technological skills I employed were to not panic and ask for help. The technological skills I employed was the Windows Movie Maker. Now that I know how to do it, it seems fairly simple. I was aware of my learning style. I've always been aware of it. I am a hands on learner. I can't be told how to do something. I have to do it. Trial and error. It's how I learn the best!

How to Delete Cookies off Your Computer

I have always wondered exactly what cookies are on a computer and how to clear them. I still don't fully understand what they are, but more importantly, I know it's imperative to the function of my computer to clear them. So, I did a Google search for a place that could teach me how to do it. I found the following website with that information: http://www.ehow.com/how_2173344_delete-cookies-clean-computer.html
This website was helpful in that it explained that if I am having computer crashes, slow running applications, or the computer is just running too slow, that I need to get rid of my cookies. It then gave step by step instructions on how to do that. It also gave some tips and warnings, as well as some offers of other types of information such as: cleaning up your PC for free, cleaning up your computer with a free scan, and speeding up your computer.

My Instructor's Teaching Methods

My instructors have engaged me in their courses by offering a variety of learning tools. Most of my classes at Marylhurst have been online-all except one. For my online classes, not just having to read a typed lesson but rather watching video clips, having online discussion forums, reading smaller chunks of information, and asking us questions, has been a tremendously fun way to learn. It is a lot less mundane and boring when they shake things up by offering us various learning tools such as videos, blogs, audio clips, photographs or art. My one class on campus was a fantastic class. We were up and out of our seats a lot and moving around the classroom which really fun and again, broke up the class time of just sitting and listening to a lecture. My in-classroom instructor offered games, lectures, videos, audio clips, art work, experiments, small groups, projects, working with others, and fun brain-teasers. Technology was used both in my online classes as well as my on campus class. The technology worked great! There were no problems. My one face to face class was amazing because my instructor did utilize dynamic learning strategies. I have had a couple really tough online instructors who were just interested in us doing the reading and answering the questions asked. However, most of my online instructors were really good about creating multiple activities to present the material needing to be learned that week, and I really feel that they helped guide student learning. They didn’t just have us read and spit back the answers at them, but rather expected us to find the answers through a variety of methods. Those are the classes that students really learn something-when we have to seek out the answer-and not when it is right there on paper in something we just had to read and then write the answers based on what we read. The methods that work best for me both in face to face and online classes are variety. Variety is the key. A bit of reading, a discussion forum asking us what do we think, questions to answer where we have to do a bit of digging to find the answers, small groups, art work, videos, brain teasers, and an overall atmosphere of calmness and laid back attitudes, are all methods that I have appreciated the most, and learned the most from.

My Interpretation

To take the Computer Technology Survey class at Marylhurst, one must be open to learn new things. When I first signed up for this class, I thought, oh no, not another computer class! I signed up for this class because it is a requirement at Marylhurst. I thought I knew everything there was to know and that I had already learned it all. What a pleasant surprise! Only the first two weeks did I know most of the stuff. Ever since, it has been a challenge. The title of the class is just that- it is a survey of all the computer technology out there. I believe it means that we will cover what the internet has to offer as well as the latest software, hardware, and digital media applications available. This class is designed to inform us students what is out there and how to utilize what we have learned in our everyday life- both personally and professionally. By the end of the class, we should be able to demonstrate and use these applications learned.

Creativity

The video clip we watched in class was stressing the importance of creativity in education. It said that creativity is becoming as important as literacy in education. I don't believe that 20 years ago when I was in school, that my teachers were concerned with encouraging creativity. I don't really remember being encouraged at all to be creative, until I took a ceramics class in high school. I believe we do, just like the video said, all have a capacity of creativity. It's what we do with that capacity that matters though. If we foster and stimulate ourselves, and even stretch ourselves to be creative, the outcomes could be amazing. But if we do nothing with our capacity to be creative, we are just ordinary and probably won't stand out, or be unusual, but rather just an ordinary Joe. Now, there's nothing wrong with being ordinary Joe if that's what you want to be, but why not push yourself to be something bigger and better? Even by furthering our education, we are being more creative than the average Joe. The video said that a lot of people believe that we have to do things better than we did in the past. I believe that is true to some extent- and that's because we have way more people now, resources are low, and we have an entirely different world now- because of technology. But, I don't believe that statement is true in the whole realm of our living. I think some things need to slow down in a sense. We need to work harder. We need to be kinder to each other. We need to be more flexible, and less demanding. We need to appreciate the things we had and did in the past, and appreciate the easiness technology has given us in our present day life. Creativity is at our fingertips, now go out there and do something with it!

Reflection

I have always used and been fluent in Word. I have had a lot of experience with Excel as well. I went to a computer training trade school for 7.5 months several years ago, and MS Office was one of the things we learned. I hadn't had MS Office on my computer at home for a long time, until just recently. My brother introduced me to OpenOffice.org. I have been using that program for the last year and a half. What I didn't know anything about was Googledocs. That was completely new and foreign new me. Though all the tabs and icons were basically the same as Open Office or Word, so it wasn't hard to navigate. I had to redo my Google spreadsheet like 4 times. I finally triumphed! My problem was the formatting, not the formulas or anything. I had a hard time visualizing how it should look and what should go where. I have learned that I am not as patient with myself as I thought. I will need to remember this in the future and practice it regularly. This will definitely help me in my learning. Slowing down. Slow and steady wins the race.

Technology As An Aid

I remember the first time I used any form of technology to help me in my learning. I was about 8 and I used a calculator for the first time in math. While I thought it was awesome, it didn't help me in my learning. Instead, it did the work for me and gave me the answers. I used it for all my homework and I always got an A. However, when it came to test time, I would usually get a low score because I found that I didn't really know how to do the math because the calculator was always doing it for me. So while it was cool, it hindered my ability to learn. Oops! I got into big trouble and had to buckle down and study hard. In my freshman year of high school, we were transitioning from typewriters to computers. I took a typing test half the class on a typewriter and half on a computer. This little bit of technology helped me learn how to navigate the simplest of tasks on a computer and it helped teach me the basics of typing. This obviously aided me in how to write papers and type correctly, etc. There was no Internet when I was in high school and I didn't go to college right away. I waited a decade. When I was in my mid twenties, I attended at trade school that was business and computer focused. This obviously aided me in my learning. I learned how to format letters, memos, doing mail merge, email, and many other computer related tasks that would then help me get a great office job. When I decided it was time to get a real college education, I was amazed at all the different ways one could go to school. I took most classes in the classroom on campus, but there were other options too, that I partook in. A student could take classes online, or through distance learning. There was  an option to take a class through local cable television. You would just tune in on specific days at specific times. Without the technology of the television and cable, one wouldn't be able to do that. Because of the Internet, I was able to take a bunch of online classes (including the one that is requiring me to type this blog right now)! Without the technology of the computer and the Internet, I would not be able to research and write and watch videos that have all aided me in my learning. There is so much information that I have gained as a result of technology. Technology is nothing but a good thing in my opinion. Look where we are today, all that we know and all that we can do! It truly is amazing!