My thoughts

I was pretty apprehensive whether I could complete the whole training online as this is my first time experiencing blended learning. The fact that 99% of the training is online actually frightened me as I was not confident of completing the training. However, on the other hand, my own objective was that I wanted to complete the training as it would help me overcome my fear of technology tools and familiarise myself with new technology tools.

Indeed, I felt that I have achieved more than I set out to do. Firstly, most of the websites that we need to go to is rather user friendly. We just need to register ourselves and come up with a username and password and off we go. I keep a notebook of the websites that I registered myself with and all the usernames and passwords, for easy reference.

Secondly, technology changes all the time, and we always and definitely have to learn, unlearn and relearn new tools.

Thirdly, I've learnt that some of the technology tools are useful, while some are not. For example, personally, I did not find the RSS feeds very useful, unless I check it daily for updates. I prefer to just go directly to my favourite news websites and read all the news and updates. I found De.li.cious very useful as it is like a "Favourites" tab, except that you can access your "favourites" anywhere and on any computer since it is a webbased bookmark. Youtube is something which is commonly known, however, I would have to think deeper on how I want to use it with my students. I enjoyed playing with the image generators and I found Paul's recommendation (the newspaper clipping generator - FODEY.COM) very useful indeed. I could straightaway think of a way to use it for my module - insert a title like "BUDGET 2009" to catch the student's attention, and add in some content.

Overall, the training has at least help me to learn some of the new technology tools currently in use. However, it takes deeper thinking to evaluate how I can use some of the tools in my module. The 23 Things is just the beginning. But it has taught me that self-learning is always ocurring and it should never end....