Reflection on Learning

How this course, Understanding the Impact of Technology on Society, has helped me develop my own technology skills as a professional educator is by giving me the courage to take technology risks.  Before this course, I knew about Wikipedia, but did not know how to make a wiki of my own.  Now, not only have I helped to create a wiki and learned about how useful they can be in putting information out there for everyone to share, but I'm currently working with one of my classes to create a wiki to help review for the upcoming state assessment.  I've looked at how pod-casting could be useful in getting lectures and lessons out to students who are absent, or need to go back over a lesson when they are at home, and as far a web-logs, well they allow for me to not feel as alone with my thoughts.  I enjoy reading the blogs of others in this class because it helps me to see that I'm not the only one who has the concerns about bringing technology into my classroom.  Through their thoughts, I gain confidence to be a risk taker and work toward making myself more tech literate and adventurous.

How I have deepened my knowledge of the teaching and learning process is through the majority of the reading that I have done on the value of using technology in the classroom.  Not just giving notes using PowerPoint or a Promethean board, but through allowing students the use of wikis, blogs and pod-casts.  Instead of having them complete worksheets or assignments just for me to grade, I need to give the the world to assess their learning.  This will help them learn how to interact in a global learning environment and give them reason to think in more depth that they would just filling in a worksheet for me to grade.  By using technology my students will be better prepared for an ever changing world and give them a reason to be interested in what they learn in my classroom.

How I have changed my perspective from my classroom being teacher-centered to more learner-centered is through surveying my students on how they would like to learn and how they will demonstrate their knowledge and understanding.  By having them work across the room with another student via wiki only -no talking or getting up allowed- my students learn how to collaboratively work with someone in a different area and clearly state their position or argument.  Instead of having them work from the book as the only source, I can have them log onto lectures from universities, museums or use Wikipedia to help them fully understand topics.  They can go on virtual field trips to battle sites or museums to view first hand the tools or weapons that were used by settlers or soldiers.  They can use Google Earth to view the land forms that Lewis and Clark had to traverse or how Native Americans or the early pioneers had to adapt to the climate they were in.  Indeed, I've strived to make my classes more learner centered; after all, I won't always be there for them.

How I can continue to expand my knowledge of teaching, learning and leading with technology to increase student achievement is by continuing on with my studies.  I can actively seek out training opportunities offered by my district and regional educational service center.  This blog can help me keep up with the others in my class and continue to learn from and with them in the future.  I can and have continued to look at my group's wiki and the wikis of the other two groups as well to see if any new information has been posted as well as looking online for more ideas.  But most importantly, I need to talk to my students and see how they would like to learn.  By giving them the opportunity to lay out a plan for how they want to learn, they will begin to take an active role in their education that helps to make it more valuable to them.  Will they all like this way of learning?  No, because not everyone in technology savvy or have the courage to expand their horizons.  Will my administrators fall in line with my ideas and provide me the money and equipment I need?  It is doubtful, since I will have to prove that my ideas have merit and I will have to share monies with other departments in a time where funding for education is being cut to the bone.  So what do I do?  I will need to get creative with what I have and learn how to use it better.  Fort students who are not willing to learn using technology, then I will have to convince them to try, but I think they will be the easiest to convince when they see their classmates being more engaged in the lesson.  However, it is always my job to continue to help my students become better learners to prepare them for a world that values technology skills.

The long term goals that I set for myself are simply to get more training.  As I said previously, I can use technology trainings set up by my district or regional educational center, but I do not think that this will be enough.  I have access to sites that I can use to further my learning, such as Atomic Learning and Learning.com as well as the Web 2.0 wiki set up by my district's technology department.  I also can continue my learning by taking part in technology grants such as the one I am currently involved in that is funded by my state.  I must also continue to practice with technology and use blogs and wikis to seek out new technology to use with my classes.  This is going to take me beyond two years and well into the future.

After completing this course, I went back and looked at my answers on the check list given to us in week 1.  When I began, most of my answers were in the rarely used category.  The reason why is because I did not have the knowledge, skills or courage to change my teaching practices.  Now, that I have experimented with them, I feel like my answers will be falling more into the sometimes used category with the goal of the majority being in often used.  I want to make my classroom more student-centered and I feel that I have the knowledge to begin doing this on a larger scale that I am right now.  For this course, I have been working with only one of my six classes in order to make it easier for me to work with the students as I, myself, have been learning.  Next year, I would like to try using all of my classes as I continue to use new technology in my classroom, by I will find myself not only working with new learning strategies, but a new schedule with shorter classes and a new standardized test to prepare my students for.  Yet, I have faith that I will be able to be successful in my goal.  Will I make the often used category next year? I doubt it, but I will continue to strive to meet it in the years that come.