What I have learned so far.....Week 5 EDLd 5352

Sometimes I cannot believe how much I have learned so far in these Master Classes.  The feeling of accomplishment is so good at times that it scares me.  My fear of technology had kept me from learning for myself for so long that I did not know if I would be able to catch up.  Just this right here, Blogging, I could not see myself doing.  I can now do it and see how it could be beneficial in my life and career.  The ability to communicate to others all over the world is at our fingertips, but only if you know how to use the tools.  I know I still have much to learn but I feel I am into the journey and the road is not as rocky as I had thought it would be.
One of the best tools I learned about was the use of Google Docs, I feel this could be used by teachers to work on projects, lesson plans, parent information, the list is endless.  Administrators could use this tool with other administrators, their teachers,  and parents.  The ability to collaborate on a document at the same time is incredible and could be a huge benefit to team work.  But the advantage of working at separate times on the same document is also a huge benefit for those who have different schedules.  Students could use this for group projects, just like we did and the teacher would be able to see who did what using the different colors, just as we did.
The flip classroom was something new that I learned and can really see the benefit to this concept.  To have the time in the classroom to work with students and not have the lecture the whole time would be a bonus in actual teacher working with student time.  The use of technology has made this technique possible. 
Other tools I have learned about are Twitter, Youtube, Wiki, Educlipper, wetpaint.com and many others.  These Web tools can be used for collaboration, by teachers and students.  The Internet offers teachers and students a great tool to explore, find, share and contribute to educational content.  By using these tools educators and students can find, share and create the best educational content on the web.  The list is endless as to where you want to go and what you want to learn.  I feel I have made a huge leap in the right direction of better use of technology.
In the last class I was in we had to update our logs for Course Embedded hours and Campus Supervised hours and I was amazed at how many hours I have already logged.  The year has gone by so fast and I remember in the beginning that I was afraid that I could not find 150 hours at my campus to log.  Well much to my surprise I have surpassed that mark and even gone over.  I see now how I have let fear control parts of my life and kept me from accomplishing my dreams.  Has some of this been hard?  Yes but I have pushed through I have got out of my comfort zone and realized I am not as dumb as I thought it was.  I will not lie though I am ready to finish with my classes and move on to the next step in my career.  I am looking forward to the future in administration and will savory this hopefully last year in the classroom.