September 10, 2014

In class we started learning about Google Drive, something I'm fairly familiar with. I've used it for a few years now. My main use has been doing the employee scheduling at work using Google sheets, which works well with excel. By using drive I could make the schedules from any computer, whether it be my own at home or the main computer at either of the theaters I've managed. Drive made my life a lot easier once I figured out how to use it. It's a lot easier than emailing the same document to myself over and over as an attachment and trying to remember which version has my latest changes on it.
It was really fun to learn about how collaborative you can be with Google. The in class activities were actually pretty fun, especially rewriting a lame story with a few partners all at the same time. I used to write for a crappy television show the first time I was in college and I've always enjoyed building on ideas with people while writing. I also think it would work well as a lesson plan for high school English. Working like that is a fun way to get students' minds active and would help to build their writing skills for sure.
I was happy that we got out of class a little bit earlier than the designated 9:50 and relieved when the professor told us we will have two weeks in a row where we can work from home instead of coming into the stuffy classroom. That will be a great two weeks, as long as I'm up to speed on what we're doing in class.
I still have to buy a headset with a microphone. This is a time where I still wish I worked at Staples so I could get a discount as well as use some type of coupon. It would also be useful to have the knowledge of what's in stock. I'll probably just wind up ordering the cheapest set I can find online, or maybe I'll go in to my old Staples and ask my former coworkers what the best option is.
I'm very happy with this class so far. I'm familiar already with a lot of what we've covered but I'm really building on my knowledge and ability to use the technology. I think it might behoove me to take the follow up class next semester, if the school permits me to. The more technology for teaching you are familiar with, the better it will look when you start applying for teaching positions.