Strengths and Weaknessess

From this reading I realized how much technology is influencing elementary education in particular! I cannot believe the tremendous effect technology is having on the different forms of teaching and helping students become independent learners. According to the UNI survey some of my strengths would be contributed to the fact that I have grown up with technology all around me! My own education has been through using and learning from technology, so I am familiar with it. I use technology daily to research, learn, and stay connected with people. I have had many class projects in which I have had to use PowerPoint programs, overhead projectors, word processors, and internet sources. I have become familiar with a lot of technology through my educational experiences. I was lucky to grow up with a computer in my home. I took typing classes in elementary, High school, and have even in college as well. I have been taught to become familiar with and take advantage of the resources that can be found on the internet. I am very familiar with how to access resources on the World Wide Web.
One of my weaknesses could be that I do not stay as informed and updated on new things for technology that come out to help in the educational experience. I do not always have the desire to stay updated and informed with technology that could assist me in my own education. I also have not had enough experience using technology to teach many different subjects. Through my field experience, it was helpful to practice using some technology in my lessons to teach. I feel confident that with more and more experience using technology to teach it will become a great aid to me in my future classroom. I would like to learn more about using spreadsheets and graphic organizers. I think these things could be a great aid to me if I knew how to use them effectively.
As some goals, I would like to stay updated and informed on current and new technology. This would require spending more time on the internet researching what technology is helpful in the classroom. I have the resource to stay updated on technology I just need to take advantage of it more often. I would want to be continually trying to look for different ways I can help my students learn and experience through the technology that is available. I also want to use technology in my classroom through power points to help give visual aids for direct instruction. I want to help my students learn how to be independent on the computer by knowing how to use it well myself. I would want to help them learn, through doing some web quests in which they can navigate through and find things they are most interested in. I was surprised at how many options are available online in which I can learn how to use a spreadsheet, graphic organizers, and many other technological resources. Learning from any one of these programs/tutorials would help me be more confident in my ability to teach through technology. It would give me more professionalism because I could present material in different ways and stay more organized as a teacher. Improving on my knowledge about technology will only help me in the future to be a better teacher.
-I didn’t know if you wanted examples of the resources we could use or not, but here are a few:)
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic73.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2EkOCXNLQM
http://www.k12.hi.us/~tethree/01-02/tutorials/ss/home3.html