Reflection Blog

CEP 416 was my first experience with an online class. Before I registered my dad told me it wasn't a good idea for me, and he was right because he knows me all too well. I am a major procrastinator and this was not helped by indefinite deadlines. This class was not what I expected, but I did learn a few valuable things. I learned about some new technologies that I will definitely be able to use in my classroom, but I was disappointed overall with this class. The labs were to just go to websites and watch their tutorials, and I feel like thats not it should have been. I wish there had been more discussions about actual classroom use rather than just how to use these applications. I also felt very awkward writing this blog the whole semester, I'm not someone who loves to talk about what I think and I definitely don't enjoy putting my thoughts on the internet. I feel like I am bashing this class and thats not what I want to do, because a lot of the information was important. I think the biggest emotion I feel about this class is disappointment, disappointment in myself for the grade I am going to recieve, disappointed that I proved my dad right, and disappointed in overall content of the course.
The biggest thing I learned was that technology can be a great supplement to learning, but I don't think it should be the only avenue. Not having a face-to-face connection with the instructor made me feel less responsible for my work, because I don't have to see them everyweek and they can't put a face to my work. This hurt the time I spent working on assignments and the quality of assignments I turned in. I think I come away from this class knowing just how important it is to make a connection with my students and let them know they are accountable for the work the hand in.