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Reflecting on My ePortfolio Journey – A Fun, Eye-Opening Experience!

What an exciting and rewarding journey this ePortfolio assignment has been! When I first started the Technology for Teaching & Training course with Dr. Cowan, I didn’t quite realize how much this project would stretch me, in the best way possible. As an administrative assistant, I don’t always think of myself in an “educator” role, but this course helped me recognize just how much training, communication, and organization I do that supports learning every day. Creating this digital portfolio was both fun and challenging. It allowed me to showcase what I’ve learned and reflect on how I can apply those lessons to my real-world work setting. I gained valuable skills in using instructional tools, organizing content effectively, and designing a professional online presence that represents me and my goals. I especially loved that we were encouraged to go above and beyond —and with Dr. Cowan’s guidance, it felt natural to want to do just that. Her passion for teaching and her detailed, ...
  Degree in Progress: A 25-Year Journey (and Counting!) I originally set foot in college as a wide-eyed, 18-year-old who had just graduated high school in 1997. The "information superhighway" was still in its infancy, and the internet was a mystical, almost mythical thing that we accessed in clunky computer labs. The Dewey Decimal System was our trusty guide through the library, and if you needed to research something, you had to brave the dial-up connection and wait for what felt like forever for the internet to load. Back then, I was brimming with enthusiasm, though I had no clue what I wanted to be when I grew up. But college—well, that was just the thing you did after high school, right? My parents didn’t attend college when they were younger, but my mom was a different story. She didn’t go right out of high school—she already had me by the time she decided to go back and pursue her dreams. She became a registered nurse, and seeing her determination and success sparked a ...
Tech Tools for Teaching I Can't Wait to Share With You! I know you’ve all heard of Google, YouTube, Word, and PowerPoint—those trusty tools we all rely on for information, research, papers, and presentations. But what if I told you there’s a treasure trove of exciting, easy-to-use tools that can take your teaching game to the next level? Sure, the classics are still solid, but let me take you on a journey through a world of tech tools that will spice up your classroom and make learning even more fun and engaging.  Ready? Let’s dive in! Google We all use Google, right? It's practically the go-to term for searching for anything on the internet. It’s so ingrained in our lives that it’s even become a verb: “Just Google it.” But hold on a second – Google isn’t just your mom’s search engine anymore. Nope, it’s transformed into a vast suite of tools that can seriously level up your teaching game. From collaborating with students to organizing your life (because let’s face it, you ne...