Strengths and Weaknesses

1. What were your strength/weaknesses according to the UNI survey and NET Standards? Establish goals you would like to accomplish as a beginning teacher who will integrate technology in instruction and in the classroom. Your goals should be developed according to your weaknesses. Identify 2 mini-workshops, short-courses, podcasts, or 2 on-line tutorials you would take that will improve your weaknesses. Explain how these workshops and/or tutorials will further your professional growth and goals. Post a reflection titled "Strengths & Weaknesses" of no more than 3 paragraphs discussing these points.

According to UNI and NET Standards, my strengths include knowledge of equity, ethics, legal, and human issues concerning use of computers and technology, the awareness of resources for adaptive assistant devices for students with special needs, using audio/visual resources, using the internet and email, and using word processing. My weaknesses include, video conferencing, using instructional software, and knowing and using terminology. The rest of my knowledge with technology resources and tools for information literacy and the basic technology equipment operations and concepts falls under a similar category, which is the apprentice stage.

Some goals I would like to accomplish as a beginning teacher integrating technology instruction in the classroom would be first to understand and use terminology. I think in order to understand what something is or how to do it you have to understand the basics. I believe terminology is the starting point of understanding technology. Next, I would like to improve the tools of video conferencing and learning the instructional software. I believe in the future, technology is going to be only way to teach so I need to understand the software instructions do be able to adequately teach it.

To help achieve my goals, I could take short online courses. I have researched and found a website that offers help in understanding computer and internet terminology. This website is www.universalclass.com. The website states, "After taking this course, students will come away with a deeper understanding and better appreciation of the computer and Internet related technologies and become better educated and better versed technology users and consumers." The next goal I want to achieve is learning how to do video conferencing and learn how to work with instructional software. I have found a tutorial that can help me understand as well as work with video conferencing. After I complete these tutorials, I will be able to communicate with those that are far away as if they were still here. I would also be able to teach my students a new way of communicating that would keep them interested.