Hello fellow classmates. My name is Courtney Isgett. I am a current graduate student in the Instructional Technology Master's program at the University of Southern Mississippi. This is my final semester and I have thoroughly enjoyed this program, the instructors, and collaborating with my fellow classmates using many different forms of online communication tools. I began my journey in distance education back in 2011 when I enrolled in my first online course. Most of my undergraduate degree was completed online, with the exception of 18 hours, so I am familiar with common distance learning paradigms, Microsoft word, excel, PowerPoint, etc...I feel that I am very familiar with online learning and distance education overall. I have had many years of prior experience utilizing these skills and learning more and more about the fundamentals of distance education, which has grown exponentially in the last y ply technology to education, and more. decade. I taught SPED for about four years until I decided to resign due to my husband taking a job in Canada. He works in the oilfield industry as a senior NACE coating inspector so he travels most of the year and sometimes it is quite far away, too far to fly in and out in a simple weekend. These days we spend part of our time in South Mississippi and the other traveling with him around the USA and Canada while I continue to advance my education online. In previous courses I used other LMS (learning management systems) such as Blackboard and now Canvas. Normally, I communicate through the LMS (messaging system it offers) or I use email. In recent years I have become familiar with other collaboration and communication tools such as discussion boards, GoogleDocs, Screencast-o-matic, GroupMe, Socrates, Vimeo, and I have completed three blogs. I have never used a podcast as a learning tool. I am looking forward to learning about the different ways to apply a podcast to an educational environment (I can think of a few but applying it myself as an assignment will help, as I am a kinesthetic learner.) I think as educators it is our duty to prepare our students for the future and whatever it is they may decide to pursue. Giving them the necessary information, skillsets, tools, and confidence in their education is important for future growth. This also includes introducing them to the many different technological tools because technology is such an important part of our everyday life and it will only continue to advance in the future. Students should be comfortable and familiar with technology and all it encompasses. When I was in mt formative school-age years we did not have computer classes. Once I decided to enroll in online courses, it was a struggle at first because I had to learn the basic aspects of computer functions. I did not receive my first computer until I was 18 years old. We were not well off and lived in a rural town. Our school did not have many resources and neither did my family. I hate to see students struggle with basic computer skills as I think it is a necessary component to society today. I am looking forward to learning more about instructional technology, how to apply technology to education, teaching in general, and to use it as a tool to increase learning and growth. Copyright 2019
2 Comments
Jena
6/7/2019 04:50:43 pm
Hello Courtney, it was nice to see a familiar name. I like the layout of your blog and look forward to learning with you. Best wishes.
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April
6/13/2019 02:11:04 pm
Wow, Courtney, You have a lot of great technology experience. I'm going to enjoy getting to know you and learning with and from you throughout this summer.
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