Six+Courses

The Six Courses That Helped Me Most In looking at the six most helpful courses in this program, for me the first course that we took in this program, EDLD5306 was a great foundation for all that followed and is one of the courses that helped me most as I worked through the content. I learned about wikis for the first time in this course, and have been using them consistently ever since. They have become an important tool to me. I have several and can not remember how I did things before. Another course that I found to be especially helpful was EDLD5333, Leadership for Accountability. This course gave me a good template for planning and implementing professional development on my campus that is effective and engaging. I have led and been in professional development sessions that could have been executed in a more learner-centered way. Learning about ways to make this happen and going through the process of actually planning a session for my campus in line with this template was great practice. A course that was particularly beneficial for me was EDLD5366, Digital Graphics, Animation, and Desktop Publishing. In this class we got to learn about the reasons behind why certain things are visually appealing to the eye and why others are not. This was helpful to me in being able to see reasons behind things. In my own experience, I have found myself deciding to read or pass over something based on what the visual appeal was for me. Now I have the knowledge and tools to be able to make my own publications more visual appealing for my readers. A fourth course that I thought was most helpful in this program was EDLD5364, Teaching with Technology. The greatest thing about many of these courses has been the take-away tools that we have learned about. The tool that I loved learning about in this course was the UDL Book Builder site. Making a practice book on the site for this course actually became a product that I used at my campus. I have shared this tool with others on my campus and will continue to use it because of what it does for my students as they approach the content I am sharing with them. Another course that I found to be most helpful was EDLD5363, Video Technology and Multimedia. In this course, the greatest take-away was again the product that we created in the class. As a group project, we created a public service announcement that we posted on the web. Learning the different aspects of editing the video, writing the script, and getting the finished product ready for public posting, // et al //, were all activities that helped me to learn more about creating a good multimedia product. Another aspect of this course that was helpful was the team part of it. The team that we formed worked very well together and we divided up the labor and found time to communicate with one another. The last of the six most helpful courses for me in this program was EDLD5368, Instructional Design. This course asked us to create an online course using web 2.0 tools, assistive technology, and best teaching practices. This course gave me another great tool that I can not only turn around and use myself, but can also share with others on my campus. As a special education teacher, I am finding that many web 2.0 tools make things more accessible to my students, as well as being very motivating to them.