Personal Website

MARIA OTA

Welcome! My name is Maria Ota and this is my CD 413 Portfolio Website. I am a fourth year squibble (student) studying Child Development with a minor in Psychology and Biology. I am from the beautiful San Diego city where I enjoy relaxing and surfing at the warmest beaches in California. I am currently in the pursuit of becoming a future elementary school teacher, but eventually I'll work my way up to becoming an upper level science or mathematics teacher. My ultimate goal is to become a teacher abroad, where I can teach English as a foreign language while traveling the world. 
Before this class assignment, I was what they would call a "noob" with technology. Throughout my journey as a developing squibble in CD 413, I have always wanted to learn how to use Photoshop but lacked the accessibility and knowledge to use it. Luckily, I have finally learned the many tricks in Photoshop which I believe is a necessary skill to have. As a future teacher I will most likely be using technology in the classroom and/or have to teach students how to use this program. I've also learned how to use iMovie and this tool opened my eyes to video editing and made me have much more respect for filming, editing, and recording. Not only did I need to know what to say ahead of time, but I also had to make sure my microphone was able to pick up just the target noise. I liked learning this technology because I know I will have to create films in the future for other possible classes or pitches; or even have to teach my students how to use the tool.

I must say that one of my personal favorite "cognitive rewards" I've learned from this course was Mooc's (Massive Open Online Course). Hearing that there are free available courses for any topic I am interested made me so excited to learn even after I graduate! There are plenty of subjects I would like to know more about such as coding, advanced Photoshop, music, and languages. Another useful skill I learned was how to make a meme! I never knew how simple it was to make a meme and I think memes are an efficient, entertaining, and important way to connect with youth today. This skill will be handy to use with future students to keep the mood light in the classroom as a teacher. On a different note, I loved learning about podcasts because can be a great alternative to doing speeches and essays in my opinion. It is also a rising technology application that many use for listening to the news and other educational information, so it is great to know how to create beneficial podcasts to share with our society. The most obvious technology tool I've learned to use is how to make a website! While I must admit it was a very, very long process with too many trials and errors, the website making was a rewarding experience and I know website creating will help me in the future for jobs and a complication of past projects I have completed in my life. 

In this class I am constantly learning new technology tools such as garage band, URL shorteners, etc; all of which are prevalent in the work field today. I am always eager to learn the next new tool and I hope to keep myself informed and up-to-date in the ever-changing technological world we live in today.