Google sites a good way to market yourself?

Increasingly employers are turning to the online world to get a better feel for prospective employees. You frequently hear about people not getting/losing their jobs as a result of what they post on sites such as Facebook and MySpace. As a result one has to wonder if posting information such as CV's and teaching portfolios online is a good or bad professional move.

Personally the fact the employers are venturing online to retrieve prospective employee information indicates to me that using online resources in a positive manner can only give a leg up in the job market. I realize that people possess many different opinions on this issue though, so feel free to share your thoughts.

Based on the reason stated above and because Google Sites has an easy to use interface, I have elected this service to host my new CV and teaching materials site. I started creating the site today, and once I get a bit more done I will post the link here to get your feedback. Until we meet again...

Perspectives and Learning New Things

Throughout our class discussion today I could not help but reflect on the various teachers I have observed. I tried to figure out which teaching perspective each might have as a dominant perspective based on their teaching style. I eventually concluded that what perspective a teacher displays on one particular day, is probably influenced by a number of factors. Those factors almost always include the instructors mood, previous experience with the topic, and demeanor of the class. It is very interesting to me how our past influences our perspective and hence the way we convey information when teaching students. I suppose this just one of the things that makes learning interesting and complicated at the same time.

Speaking of learning, it was great to learn about some new technologies that other members of my group have used during our team huddles today. I look forward to investigating these new technologies as we move forward in the course. I am also excited to learn from other teams as they present information about different technologies. I suspect that in most cases the team will be novices when it comes to the technologies they present about, and I think it is great to learn about a new technology from someone who has limited experience with it. Learning about the new technology is easier this way, because detailed explanations are frequently provided.

Until next time...

My First Blog

My name is Derek and I am a 4th year Ph.D. student in chemical education at the University of Georgia. The purpose of this blog is to document my thoughts and reflections related to educational technology and the educational technology course (EDHI-9040) I am currently taking. This is my very first blog, so we will see how things go.

In our first class I was very excited to meet so many people from a variety of backgrounds. I feel like all of us will have unique perspectives regarding educational technology to contribute to class discussions. I look forward to learning as much as I can from these discussions. I feel like this course will be an excellent forum for the exchange of educational practices related to technology.

I am particularly excited about the portion of course devoted to online learning. I have been considering taking all or at least a portion of the GRSC-7770 course I teach online. I have never been involved in an online class, so we will have to see how things go.

I look forward to sharing my reflections and thoughts on a weekly basis. Until next week...