My initial feelings about this class were pretty negative before the class even started. I'm thinking about the inner workings (something I knew nothing about) and dreading a heavy load of tech speak and lessons that won't help me in the classroom. I know this is unfair to have such a bad attitude before starting, but it was human nature.
I'm happy to say that today my attitude is experiencing a 180 degree shift. I'm pretty excited about what we've done. I have made some plans for the future with the information we've learned. The first concerns my computer at home. I have taken some advice from my readings and have located new and improved security software. I have even managed to find free software online that is highly rated, more thorough than what I was previously paying for, and easier to use. The cost has just been the icing on the cake.
The second project will come this summer. I plan on buying two rotated out computers from my district and I want to use them as labs. I'm going to try to run them off exclusively open source material. Operating system, security, OpenOffice, Mozilla, etc... I also want to use them to play around with the insides and see if I can update them on my own for a reasonable cost in parts. I actually have a former student who is a computer whiz that has indicated he may have some spare parts he could give me to get started.
As far as my class, I think the lessons from Triumph of the Nerds apply the best. You never know what direction we are headed in and it is important to take any idea you get and run with it, because the ideas aren't necessarily what is important, but rather what you can do with them.
So as you can see I'm pretty excited, and I think this class was just what I needed at this point of the year.
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