I think that digital literacy should be a requirement for students during their first year of high school or even before. I am not sure if it is already, but I think that it definitely should be. I think it is of high importance that students are able to critically look at the information that they find on the Internet. Last class we talked about the different websites that appear to be real. If many of us were not on alert, we too may have been fooled. Unfortunately I was not introduced to critically looking at information until grad school. With the NCLB laws shadowing every teacher I wonder if their is any way that digital literacy can be incorporated into what is taught in the classroom.

I have been transformed. Up until now I have never liked Google for several reasons. The main one being when ever I used them as a search engine I did not get good results. Now I am a walking advertisement for Google. I love everything that google has to offer. As I am sure you all could tell especially the free 411 service that Dr. Ransom told us about. I tried it out after class and I love it. Google docs is a great resource and so is Google scholars. I know now the reason that my searches from Google gave me different results than I get from other places. I also have to say that I agree with the saying that when a person does not like a product it is usually because of user error, because that was definitely the case for me. Anybody else agree?

Excel is a program that I have always been afraid of. I only used it when absolutely neccesarry and I can do only the basics if that. I am so thankful that Dr. Ransom provided us with these links on excel programs. I never realized how much you can do with excel, and now I know that it is not as scary as I thought it was. Certainly if a child can be taught early how to use this program it will benefit them in the long run in many areas and they won’t be afraid when they are required to use excel for any reason. I really enjoyed the lesson plan ideas that were given and I hope that I will be able to implement them one day soon.

The title reflects my thought for the day regarding technology. I feel so empowered the more I learn in this technology class. Being informed makes me feel so secure. It raises my self-esteem because I feel that I am an asset to my school with this knowledge. The more I learn the more I can share with students and faculty and even friends and family in my personal life.

It amazes me that I would purchase a product and never know the value it has. For so long I have had my computer and Microsoft office and have looked over the many ways it can be utilized. I never realized the things that I was capable of doing with Word. Now that I know I will be able to maximize my value of this product.