Instructional Technologies for Teaching- Week 1

Goals for the class:
I have grown up in the age of technology. I have been using computers for about as long as I can remember, and I have been using the internet since it became available to the average person. I have learned a lot in my school years about how to find information, and how to validate that information, on the internet. I've written dozens of papers and essays, and have enjoyed my education immensely.
There is a big difference, however, between using technology and teaching technology. If I am to be a teacher in today's classrooms, I have to be able to keep up with today's world, both material and virtual. I hope to learn in this class are methods for teaching others how to use technology properly. I hope to learn in this class better ways of understanding how to implement technology specifically for use in the classroom, i.e. lesson planning, idea sharing amongst professionals, presentation preparation, etc.
So far, I have already learned a few things that will save me a lot of time in the future. Much of what was reviewed in the Internet Detective tutorial was old news to me, but I certainly picked up a few gems of knowledge that I had clearly been missing out on. Intute, for example, seems like a great resource, and one that I had never conceived of before taking this course. Also, while I knew to look for things in the URL of website, and to check for sources and peer-reviews on articles, I never thought to check the mailing address or registry of a website to verify it's contents. Furthermore, the examples they provided (www.gatt.org vs. www.wto.org) were startling!
Lastly, at risk of sounding a bit brash, I really have no hesitations about this course. I am comfortable with technology, and I am comfortable with online learning.

Thank you for reading, come again soon!
Katie May