Fundamentals+of+Educational+Technology+5306

Reflection:

After completing this course, I envisioned being more aware of the use of technology in schools today. I would like to take all of the new technologies and ideas that were learned and implement them at my own school. I hoped I would be much more proficient in an array of new software or applications of new technology. Although I had a different idea for how we would learn this, I did still manage to achieve many of the outcomes I had envisioned. I have a much different perspective on technology use in schools. I was amazed at how easy it was to apply many of the situations from the reading to my own personal experiences with my school. I learned how to create a blog and wiki, and plan to use them in the future. I was very interested on how to make use of RSS feeds and plan to experiment with them in the very near future. I felt that the course met what I had envisioned but went about it in a different way than expected. Much of what I learned is relevant at my school because we do not actively use what is available to us. Last year I attended a brief training on a way to share your bookmarks. As I walked away I remember thinking it was a neat idea, but did not think I would utilize this. After learning about the RSS feeds in this course, I think I can utilize these two technologies together. The wiki page I created has the potential to save a lot of time with my colleagues. Because I am the only teacher on my campus teaching my subject, I have to collaborate online or wait until after contract hours. This year we are rewriting our curriculum and I hope to use my wiki for this purpose. The use of the wiki I hope will allow us to hold meetings, write lessons and explore curriculum options in the upcoming school year. I did not learn as many technologies as I thought I would, but with a better understanding of technology use in schools, I feel I have a better understanding of tools available to me. I would have liked to have learned some software applications that would have made my students excited about learning. I was very interested in the CAD training game that we read about, but was not able to locate it online. It seemed like most of the technologies that we learned were more geared for the teacher, and not actually using it in the classroom. The major factor that limited what I learned was time. Resources were given on how to get started with several new technologies, but I have not had enough time to fully explore all of the capabilities. As I begin the next school year I plan to use the wiki with my colleagues as a tool for writing curriculum, so what I learned may meet more of what I had expected given more time. I thought I was successful in carrying out the course assignments; however I currently have a zero on assignment number 3. I do not understand what could have gone wrong, as I submitted on time and everything seemed to work when I was done. I did struggle in week two with defining a navigational icon. I still am not sure if I did that right or not. I searched the net for clarification without much help. In week three, where we had to set up a wiki, I set it up to hold a meeting with several teachers that were not checking their school email. The lack of participation with my colleagues made it difficult for the assignment to work as intended. I do intend to use it when school reconvenes, but I think it will be hard to follow the timeline that I set up. One thing that was discouraging was when we created the blog. When I clicked to view another blog my computer must have picked something up that caused my internet explorer browser to keep opening new windows. I had to close everything down and restart in order to continue. It was frustrating dealing with technology and reminded me why I don’t like my students visiting sites that have the potential to damage the computers. During this course I have learned that although I am a technology teacher, I am not as open to technology in the classroom as I thought. Towards the beginning of the course I was really getting excited about the potential use of technology in the class. Many of the readings discussed how schools are “locking down” the internet or banning cell phones. While I see the point, I also agree with the readings from the end of the course that seemed to emphasize the importance of boundaries and the dangers of these types of technology. I learned that I am not as “up to speed” with what students are using as I thought. With so much information available to the “digital natives”, and their willingness to explore, it’s no wonder they are ahead of the “digital immigrants”. I learned that I could use some improvement in learning and then teaching new technology. I think many teachers are quick to judge the Technology facilitators on a campus. Teaching new technologies to an unwilling group of teachers can be difficult. I would like to learn how to do this affectively, so that my peers can learn also benefit from what I learn.