Journal #9

    I have had a great experience in EME2040.  I have learned so many invaluable skills pertaining to technology and how to organize a classroom, as well as working with my peers even though we are not in a classroom together.  As a student in the asynchronous section, it was a bit difficult to ask questions and clarify assignments right away, but I appreciated the speed at which Professor Choi would get back to me and the office hours that she holds every Friday.  I liked that I was able to work on the assignments at my own pace and do what I need to when I can.  I also like that we have the opportunity to use tokens to make sure the students can stay on track if they are not able to do an assignment on time.  Lastly, I really enjoyed the time and effort that goes into the videos and reading provided by the Professors to make sure we understand how to do the newer aspects of assignments and really gain and improve our skills with some of these programs.  I can't really think of anything that I didn't like about the class.  I feel that we are given enough time for assignments and the professors are very helpful and accommodating.  As a teacher, I can take these qualities and incorporate them into my own classroom to be a flexible and understanding educator.  My students will be able to trust that I have their best interest in mind and will provide them with the necessary tools to learn. 

    OER resources are tools, of any medium, that anyone can use to help them with their education.  They are "open," providing anyone access to these resources.  The University of Pittsburgh's library system has a long list of the many different varieties of OER resources.   It provides these resources by subject as well as completed courses, multi-media, open access books, and many more.  The large scale of this website is a clear display of the openness of OER. 

    Assignment 4 has been one of the most difficult tasks for this class.  I typically work in Google Slides, so my PowerPoint skills are a bit dusty.  I always use themes that I find online on the website Slidesgo so I was grateful that they were able to convert to Powerpoint.  Coming up with a topic was the most difficult part of this project for me as I am still new to the actual teaching part of the teaching profession.  Once I found a theme that I liked, it was then much easier to think of something.  I learned the valuable skills of creating a new layout and making a pre-recorded lesson.  My only concern is that it won't transfer well, but I can cross that bridge when I get there.  Something I didn't like was that there was not much support by the professors when it comes to how to actually put something together to teach it, although seeing as how this class deals with technology I can't really complain about that.  I think that for another assignment like this, I can improve on my ability to decide what to include on the actual slides and what to say in the recording.  I think this way, my presentation would be more cohesive.