Personal Learning Reflection

As I take this class on educational technology, I think about all of the changes that I’ve witnesses as a student, in the realm of technology. When I started in school, there was no internet. Color printing was purely amazing, and we were tested on how to use a card catalogue. There are constant changes in technology – and it’s naïve to think that I have a grasp on it, or that I know everything there is to know.
Technology is always changing, always growing and evolving, and my goal is to stay on top of that change. Everyone has had the professor or teacher who doesn’t quite know how to use the machine that they are using. Whether it’s the professor that “Replies All” instead of forwarding an e-mail, or the teacher who can’t get the projector to work, my goal is to not be that teacher.

This is an evolving goal, something that I’ll always have to keep up with. The more I learn, the more I’m able to share with my students. By doing this, I can accomplish my second goal, which is to create a class that engages students in social studies and give them a hands on education where they can be active learners.

Chemistry class has labs, biology class has dissections. What does Social Studies have? Globes? How can I make this class fun and interesting? Technology. I want to learn all aspects of technology that will engage my students. I want to allow them to have all the resources available at the click of a mouse. It’s not about a “fun” class. I ‘d love for my class to be fun, but most of all, I want my students to learn. I want to make them interested in the subject matter, and I think the best way to do that is by using technology.

When teaching with technology however, is it important to note that not all students have the same learning style. This means that some students are visual learners, some learn by hearing, and some learn by doing. Creating a webpage isn't going to automatically make your students do better. But, if you create a web page that will help students learn using a different style, compared to what you're able to use in the classroom, you will find that the students will learn more.

By integrating the internet into my class, and into my own professional development, I've been able to learn a lot of things. Having the ability to learn about new technologies, and how to use them in a class setting has taught me much more than I could have learned within my own district.

I feel that the assignment that best shows how good I am with technology is the SIG project that my group and I created. We chose to create a Wiki, and a wiki alone is great - but what I like about it is it combines many of the technologies that I've discovered during this course. I am in the process of creating a wiki that includes links to my RSS reader, my Twitter feed, and my weekly lesson plans on my Google Calendar. Combining all of these important features that we've learned in class into one easy to use website really shows how I learned to bring everything together.

I have met my goals in my Personal Growth Plan by continuing to explore new technologies. I have explored new technologies with my classmates, SIG group, and other online collaborative sites. I have been checking my RSS reader almost daily for new information, new technologies, and have utlized hashtags on twitter to locate information on Educational Technology.

I don't have any new goals, but most importantly, I want to continue to learn. This 8-week course showed me a lot about the technologies that are out there that I didn't know about. Learning about these gave me more information that I can use to become a better educator. Knowing that there are more resources out there that can help me makes me a determined learner. My plan for reaching my long term goals of continuing to learn are simple. I will continue to work on my masters and that will allow me to learn and use technologies that will benefit my students.