My First Post

My prior experiences using technology are rather slim, however I did learn a bit through middle school and high school. I don't really remember too much of it off the top of my head, but when I start doing certain projects it sparks memories and I remember some things. In middle school I made my own web page by using html encoding and it turned out ok, but I don't remember anything else from that class! I use computers a lot, and I can manage to work my way through and figure out the things I'm trying to do. I am pretty good with technology once I learn it and I can be very creative with it, but I need to be properly taught all of the new, cool programs to use.

I honestly hope to learn a lot in this class, and gain tons of knowledge to use later in my career. I am really looking forward to learning how to produce cool powerpoints and weekly newsletters for my classes when I begin teaching. I want to be able to impress the students' parents, and even other teachers, with my ability to use technology. It is very hard to keep a 5 or 6 year-old child's attention focused on one topic or activity, and wanting to go into 1st grade teaching, I would like to learn some programs or activities that I could teach them to use on the computer that would be educational for them, but also keep them interested and busy. Also, I'm looking into high school teaching as well and would like to be knowledgeable of some of the technology that would be good with that level. Overall I would like to get a brief learning of the standard programs for teachers, like grade book, and learn some of the more exciting ways of teaching, like blogs and PowerPoint.

After taking the learning style questionnaire, I learned that I am a more active, intuitive, visual and global learner. However, I only have a strong preference towards visual learning over verbal, and the others are only a fair or moderate preference over their counterpart. I completely agree with the fact that I have a moderate preference towards active learning, because I certainly do retain information better by doing activities to help me understand. But I also agree that it is only a moderate preference, because sometimes I do need to reflect and think about a subject to better understand it. I have a fair balance between intuitive and sensitive learning. This is true to me, because in different subjects I have different views of what I like to learn. In subjects like history I like to learn strictly the facts so that I can memorize them, but in science and other social science classes I like to learn the theories and make other relationships from the information I retain. I can certainly understand why I am a little more towards the intuitive learning though, because I am not patient with details or good at memorizing facts. I am good at grasping concepts, but not the specific details. Also, as and intuitor I am more comfortable with mathematical formulations than a sensor, which is very true. I knew that I was a visual learner, but I was shocked that I had a very strong preference towards visual learning. I hate straight lecture classes because I can never fully understand the subject matter. At cheerleading practice all the girls try to explain what I need to do, and every time I tell I just need to see it... so then they show me. I can definitely relate to the fact that I am a more visual learner than verbal. I am very well balanced between sequential and global learning. I don't completely understand what each of these types of learning are, but from what I read I feel that I am both types. I will try to think concepts and other things through step by step (like a sequential learner), but sometimes I will be lost and then boom, I get it (like a global learner). I have noticed before that something will all of a sudden click in my mind, yet when I try to explain it I have a very difficult time, like a global learner. I was very interested in finding out more about my learning styles.