New technology, new methodology, new ideas.

New technology
It may not be new technology for everyone, but for me everything related to the class has a new meaning. The part of technology has shocked me throughout the course. I thought that I am using a lot of technology in my daily life and my teaching and learning. But after taking this course, the answer is no. I am using only a small part of it, and I am not making full use of the parts that I thought I knew. I was able to understand multimedia and digital technology better with this course, especially when I had to do a software demo and sample mutimodal assignment. I also learned to use software that I have never used before, such as citeulike, blogger and website. Though classmates' presentation, I was able to learn open source software and wordpress, facebook. Though I have heard about these names, but I have never really understand them and never think about trying to understand them. Thanks to this course, I was able to get a better understanding of the term technology.
New methodology
I am amazed by the fact that how theories of technical writing could be built into the practical technology we could use in our teaching. Every old and new tools are given a new understanding in the ways we could use in teaching practice. When I was doing my seminar paper, I read several articles about using e-mail in ESL writing classes. I had used e-mail in my ESL classes as well, but the depth of using e-mail can't be compared with what they discussed in their articles. I could have used it more successfully and with better purposes if I had known these before. But it is never too late to learn. I have better understanding about the theories of literacy in the digital environment, and will be working on using technology in my future teaching. This course shows me the direction for future research in the field of ESL teaching.
New ideas
What I learned the most from this class is the idea of making use of what we have to learn what we need to. It is wonderful to be able to learn from my classmates the ideas they have about their assignments, seminar papers. Even class discussion gives me idea of what one person's idea could inspire other's work. All of these will not be possible without the excellent organization of Dr. Cadle. She designed the readings and assignments to guide us through the course. I could not believe how much I have covered and accomplished when I was preparing the final portfolio. I am inspired by all of you, thank you all.

What a semester!

This is my extended semester here at MSU. I should have gone back to my country in January. Because my second son was born here and he was too young to travel at that time, I had to change my plan to stay one more semester. I have always wanted to learn more about writing in English properly. But I was assigned to TESOL major before I came here. I was interested in technology and that is the reason why I chose this course. These days, when I was writing my seminar paper and composing my E-portfolio, I realized that how much I have learned through this course. Many things are new to me, for example, citeulike, blogger, and gmail docs. These are wonderful resources that I am sure I am going to use in my future teaching. I thought I knew how to use computer and technology, the fact is that I am using only a small section of the technology around me. I will recommend this course to my friends if they are working on their English major, especially L2 learners.
I am going back to China on June 1st and this is the last post here. I had a wonderful time for this extended semester. Thanks to Dr. Cadle and my classmates, I am able to learn so much in the field of writing.
Wish you all the best!