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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Reflection Questions

In what ways has this course helped you to develop your own technology skills?

In what ways can you continue to expand your knowledge of technology integration with the aim of increasing student achievement?

Set two long-term goals (within two years) for transforming your classroom environment into a place where technology is integrated seamlessly to meet instructional goals and increase student achievement. How do you plan to accomplish these goals?

Reflection Response

This course has helped me immensely in my understanding of technology and its role in the classroom. The possibilities are many and so are the opportunities for using technology as an instrument for learning that promotes critical thinking and an awareness of what a 21st century learner is. Having taken the time to explore blogs, wiki's, podcasts is just the beginning for myself. The next step is to continue to implement this sort of technology into my curriculum. A point of emphasis for myself will be to get some of my colleagues on board and begin to collaborate with other classes and hopefully other schools in the near future. The hands on approach was great for me as I continue to develop what I have learned into something that will be an intricate part of my teaching style for year to come.

Providing an audience for my students writings via blogs and wiki's promotes many of the concepts Dr. Thornburg and Dr. Dede discussed in the course videos. A style of learning that promotes a rethinking of the pedagogy of old and promotes critical thinking that requires searching out new concepts and transitions teachers from information providers to facilitators of knowledge that goes beyond our conventional ways of thinking. The "digital native" Mark Prensky describes has proven to be a great topic for discussion. Exactly who fits this distinction may continue to be debated, but one thing is for certain we see them on a daily basis in our classrooms and their new learning styles need to be met in order to prepare young American for the 21st century workplace.

My plan is to transform much of my curriculum over the next couple months in order to have it in place for next years incoming freshman. I have tinkered around with some of the new skills I have acquired already by creating a podcast that turned out to be very successful. The students really lit up when presented with an opportunity to do something different than the traditional activities. I was really a teacher that was stuck in the past and saw this graduate program as a necessity if I were going to remain relevant and useful to my students.

My most immediate goals are to begin with blogs as a way to collaborate and share ideas. I have often felt like so much work my students do in my English class is left in a way unsung. By promoting the use of blogs students will begin to share their ideas about the novels we read and the essays we write in a more transparent environment that a blog can provide. Hopefully gone are the days where I am the only audience young writers share their thoughts with. Having a voice is a large part of what makes Americans unique and being able to share that voice as a way of learning new ideas will continue to be important to our 21 century learners. Much of the same can be said about wiki's as well. Being able to jigsaw together concepts that can be amended and expanded upon by the gaining of new knowledge promotes a collaborative type of learning that will transcend itself into the workforce as well.

The course has opened my eyes not only to the wealth of technology out there, but how it can be used to teach and what it does to promote a new style of critical thinking.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008a). “Debate- Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants” . [Motion picture]. Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society. Baltimore : Author

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).
Use the Proquest Central database, and search using the article's title.

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