As this was the first week for the class to meet we covered lots of material. Most of that material had to do with understanding the course, the outline of the syllabus, course dates and agenda - including what's expected of each student for completion of assignments.
I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know each of you as you asked me questions and gave me some 'handles' to help me remember your names. As I said in class, knowing your students is important, and even though this is a course that's mostly - I would say, as much as 90% or more about technology, it's not good enough to displace the need to teach effectively because of the content I teach about.
I have attempted in this course to make use of technology - where it's appropriate, to learn about and use the technology, hoping to add to the integrity of the class and to your emersion into the conent.
As a primary guide, technology should be used by teachers to support excellent teaching and should never replace the teacher or superimpose itself on the content, such that the content is lost. Rather, technology should serve in a support role and should be used in conjunction with other relevant teaching methods that do not necessarily involve technology.
As the course goes forward we'll spend time journaling about our learning, spending time interacting with each other on Blackboard's discussion boards, and working through assignments that help to support what you'll be reading about in Chapters 1 and 2 of the text.
