End of a Journey...The final post for my Instructional Technology Program

When I started this program back in September 2010, I didn't want to work on a masters program that would be done just for the sake of completing my masters.  I wanted a program that would enrich me and would make me feel as if I have learned many practical things I could use in my professional life as well as my life at home.  After looking back from this point in time to the very beginning, I feel that this program has gone far beyond I could have every wished.  As I sit here typing this final blog, I am amazed at the amount of useful information I gained these past two years.  I am so happy that I learned Google Docs and want to continue to use this for myself and my students in the years to come.  I am also very pleased that I was introduced to Diigo, the online social bookmarking website.  I use that daily to access sites I use often as well as share information that I encounter as I am surfing the web.  Before this program, I never made my own website.  I'm excited that I can help others make a site free on Google and can be a reference if people have questions about making their own site.  I have also used a lot that I have learned in my classroom.  My students love to use Animoto as a way to report on books they have read.  I have used Prezi with students as an alternate way of making a presentation.  I also enjoy using Eyejot to give messages to my class if I am not going to be at school for the day.  One thing I would like to use more with my students is Voice Thread.  This year I was unable to use this with my students because we lacked the hardware to make it happen.  This summer our district will be getting all new computers and equipment, so I should be able to have my students use Voice Thread for various projects.  One more thing I am really grateful for is learning about RSS feeds.  I have seen those around for many years, but never knew what they were.  Now I can have various feeds set up for my students and they can get information very easily.  Well, I know I can go on forever, but these were some of the "big rocks" that I learned the past couple years.  I am truly happy that my technology knowledge base has grown so much in such a short period of time.  Though this program was a lot of work, it was worth it.  It kept me very busy, but I will miss it.  I would like to say thank you to all of my peers I have worked with the past couple years and thank you to all of the professors that made this program possible.  This program has had a huge impact on my life and I will be ever grateful for the time I spent in it.