RSS in Education

I enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to hone some of my skills in Camtasia Studio, which I enjoy getting to work with in my everyday job. I use RSS occasionally for personal use but must admit that I'm still kind of stuck in my ways in terms of visiting bookmarks for pages that I've been reading for years. One thing that I did not mention in my video is that Feedly has an excellent mobile app that I use frequently when I find myself in a waiting room or some other place with virtually nothing to keep me occupied. I'd like to keep searching for ways to use RSS in my job and possibly aggregate full-text journal articles rather than news and blog posts.

Elements of Educational Technology

Click here to read my take on the two most important elements within the AECT definition of educational technology.

I enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to geek out on some of the theoretical underpinnings of the field of EdTech as well as see some of the history involved in the evolving definitions. I've been employed with a K-12 online course provider for about 10 months, and will very soon be transitioning fully to a research role within the company, so it's exciting to read documents like these and see how they align directly with what I do an everyday basis.

Before coming into this job and this class, the concept of educational technology was kind of an abstract, nebulous concept to me. Having been a classroom teacher for only one year in a very disadvantaged school district, I simply thought that educational technology dealt somehow with incorporating computers in instruction, and was something that I struggled with due to a lack of resources. Now that I'm gaining a fuller understanding of the concept, I can see how someone in my position could have overcome those barriers more easily in an effort to more effectively facilitate learning.