I have grown as a "techie" by leaps and bounds.  I have learned so many technical skills  since beginning the MITTEN project.  Every day I have learned at least two new things and often more.  They have been as simple as knowing which button to press to open up my laptop CD holder to something complicated like learning how to use a web cam, saving and transferring the images to a hard drive and a CD when the laptop I was using didn't have a built-in CD burner.  There has also been the issue of converting images and data from a Macintosh system to a PC system.   

This project has offered a multitude of first time experiences to me.  I have used our wireless lab.  I have used a template and the free form portion of Kidspiration.  I have used Kid Pix in a meaningful, lesson driven manner.  I have used a scanner, made hyperlinks, used the digital camera and downloaded its images to the computer for the first time.  I have linked my laptop to the computer lab hard drive to save files and therefore free up more memory on my laptop.  I have burned CDs and saved information on 3 1/2" floppy discs.  I have used a Kritter USB web cam and its supporting Reel Eyes 1.2 software.  I have used the digital projector to display the short movies we created so that the students could write their stories.

The best part of this project is knowing that most of the actual lessons I did using technology with my students were the easiest part of the project.  Therefore, I won't hesitate to use technology in my lessons again.  The problems I encountered had little or nothing to do with the kid friendly software (Kid Pix, Kidspiration, CardShop Plus, Appleworks) I was using.  This is not to say that I didn't have my fair share of problems, frustrations, and stressors.  

I have spent an enormous amount of time troubleshooting different problems.  I've encountered various hardware and software difficulties.  I discovered an incompatibility between the wireless lab printer and the Kid Pix program, so I was having a lot of trouble getting my pictures off my computer the way I had first planned.  I purchased the Web cam and its support software but couldn't get it to work properly at first.  It took a lot of phone calls, technical support, and almost a whole week to get the web cam to work the way in which I had hoped.  Then it was filming and editing time which offered its own set of challenges and time consumption.  Ultimately I learned that since I had saved my movies into Quick Time format right away, I was unable to edit them and connect them at all.

I am extremely happy with how this project has gone.  However, I feel that I have learned so much so quickly that I'm lacking the depth of knowledge that I'd like to have.  I know that I will reinforce the skills I've learned and that the depth of knowledge I seek will come with time and experience. 

Perhaps the biggest lesson I have learned while doing this very challenging project has been to take on each task with small steps and just keep believing that any technological "roadblocks" I have can and will be conquered by seeking out effective help.