As I began my Master's program, I was very excited
to learn more about technology since I do not have a lot of experience in this
area. The main outcome that I envisioned for this course was to learn more
technology applications that I could implement into my general education classroom.
I wanted to learn how to become more technology savvy. I was able to achieve
these outcomes by learning some new technology applications.
A few things
I learned about are; blogs, Wikis, and online videos. I learned how to create
and design a blog. I also learned how to paste and edit text on my blog. I feel
that this will be beneficial to me because it is something that I can use with
my students to engage them in online learning. Another thing I learned was how to
create a Wiki. I had never heard about a Wiki before this class. I learned how
to create a Wiki and how to make changes to my Wiki. This can be useful to me
by allowing my students to collaborate online and thus learn from each other.
The next thing I learned was how to create an online video. This was one of the
most interesting things I learned; probably because I am a visual learner and
enjoy teaching with visuals as well. I believe this application can be a great
way for me to have students "publish" their work online. These course
outcomes were exactly what I had envisioned. I have not implemented the new technology
applications I have learned in my classroom yet, but hopefully, I will be able
to in the near future.
The
more I think about what I have learned, the more relevant I realize these
applications are to my work as a 4th grade general education teacher. I can
apply the three technology applications that I have learned to my Math,
Spelling, Science, and Social Studies lessons that I already have and teach.
The new things that I have learned will be helpful to me now because I can
start making my classroom a better technological environment as I implement my
new findings into my class lessons. They will also be helpful to me in the
future as I learn more about technology because I will be able to add more to
what I already know and expand my knowledge about technology. This will make me
better at improving my technology use and make me a better teacher for today's
21st Century learners.
Throughout
this course, I was able to achieve all of the outcomes that I had for myself. Considering
that my main goal was to learn new technology to use in my classroom, I know
that I accomplished that. As an educator, I want to keep up with what students
are interested in and be able to challenge them as well. I believe I will be
able to do that by using the things I have learned from this course. I am
extremely excited to implement the new technology that I have gained an
understanding about.
As
I look back at the past five weeks, I believe that I was able to successfully achieve
these outcomes because the assignment directions were stated in a way that was
easy to follow. I also had help from my professor, through web conferences. I
received assistance from my instructional assistant through questions and
answers via email and I attained help from my colleagues by questions and
answers on the discussion board. All of these, helped to make me a successful
student.
Each week I was successful in carrying out all of the
course assignments. However, there is one main challenge that I faced. I had to
get an extension on my week two assignment. This was because I could not get a
copy of our school technology plan. At my campus, the only person who can
access the technology plan is our technology administrator that works at the
administration office. I contacted him to get the information I needed but did
not receive the school technology plan until the Monday after my assignment was
due. When I knew that I was not going to be able to complete my assignment in
time, I contacted my course professor and she allowed me three more days to
complete my assignment. This was an answer to prayer! I was able to complete my
assignment on Tuesday, one day before it was due. I was successful at carrying
out all of the tasks for the week two assignment; it just took me a few extra
days. I learned from this experience to always ask well in advance for any and
all information that I may need for my assignments.
During this course, I feel that I learned a great
deal of information. I keep conveying this information to others that ask me
about my schooling. I feel that I have been somewhat of a sponge just soaking
in all this new information. One thing I learned about myself is that I am not
implementing enough technology into my class lessons. I realize that this is
partly due to the fact that I do not have a large variety of technology
instruments to use at my campus, but I need to learn to make what I do have
useful. As a 21st Century educator, I should be implementing more technology
into my class lessons because, my students are digital learners. I will be able
to do this by implementing the things I have learned from this course into my
classroom instruction. Since I have not had a lot of experience with technology
leadership, I feel that I need to improve these skills as well. I will be able
to do this by collaborating with the principal and computer teacher at my
campus during my Internship.
Though I know the next 18 months may be full of
rigor, I feel that my attitudes about technology are great. I am eager to learn
about Educational Technology and how to implement more technology into my
classroom. I also have the motivation to make it happen.
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