Final Reflection

Introduction
The following is my personal learning reflection about how I have grown in my knowledge and application of technology in educational settings through my participation in this course.

Teaching Strategies
I have learned and grown so much from taking this course. The two largest "take aways" I have from this course from a pedagogical standpoint are the need for students to have immediate feedback in order to continue learning and how to incorporate different teaching strategies into learning tools grounded in technology.

For example, when designing the WebQuest I used the constructivist approach and collaboration as teaching strategies. I have known about WebQuests for several years, but had never thought about effective instructional design with them. If I were to have built a WebQuest prior to taking this course I'm sure I would have designed it as an individual project where students researched information independently and came up with their own final product. I also would not have thought about trying to make sure the WebQuest was "change with difference". I think I would have just found a lot of articles for the students to look at, thinking that I was doing some great thing because my students were "using technology". My mind was very broadened as I began to think about embedding You Tube videos and searching for websites that were interactive and could not be substituted for a printed version of the site. I will carry these principles into my future teaching with technology and WebQuest design.

On a side note: Through what I've learned in this course I have asked my principal if I can teach an advanced technology elective to my middle school students next year and teach them how to build WebQuests for younger grades in science. He has approved this and I am very excited about passing on the information I've learned here!

New Technology Skills
The two most helpful technology skills I am taking from this course are how to build self-teaching, interactive units in PowerPoint using the kiosk mode and how to voice record in PowerPoint. I can think of so many applications for these two technologies. I plan on voice recording over many of the PowerPoints I have already designed for my science classes and post these on my classroom website. I can then use these for several purposes:

1. Accelerate advanced students. Those who are ahead of the class could move faster in the curriculum and listen to my lectures by viewing these PowerPoints.

2. Students who were absent during a major lesson could have access to the information at home. My students have always been able to have access to the notes for the PowerPoint, but I've always felt it was not as effective to have them read the information they missed.

3. Parents can listen to my presentations so they have a better idea of what is being taught in class. Most parents tell me they struggle with helping their student in science because they do not already know or remember the information.

Evaluating Web-Based Technologies
Evaluating web-based technologies has really opened my eyes to the possibilities of expanding the resources I use to engage students as well as teach them life-long technology skills. Middle school students are so interested in technology. I already have a very in-depth classroom website that they use every day. Now I'm thinking about other technologies such as blogs and wikis. I know that students are more motivated to be engaged, in most cases, when they are allowed to collaborate. I am thinking of hosting a wiki where I post the study guide questions and allow students to fill in the answers online (as well as their hard copies). I can then pull the wiki up on the SMARTBoard and discuss the answers they came up with during a review session. I can comment on their posts or edit them as needed. I am excited about the richer, more engaged experience I hope my students will have next year as a result of what I've learned in this course.

Personal Goal Assessment
I have met my personal goals for this course for learning about technology integration. My goals were to not just do the assignments for the credit, but to really learn all that I could through the process. I have learned so many new technology skills and pratical applications for how to integrate new technology into my classroom. I am very satisfied with the amount of learning I have done. Between this course and CEP 810 which I took concurently, I feel like I've grown a year's worth in my knowledge of educational technology.

New Goal
One new goal I have for effectively using technology in the classroom is to use technology to provide feedback for students. In one of Dr. Bell’s early lectures, he describes the evolution of using technology to provide feedback for students and the value of this feedback to encourage learning. My school has two Senteo systems (clickers to use with the SMARTBoard). Until now, I have been reluctant to try and incorporate these because I thought the logistics of using the technology was too complicated. For example, we only have two sets in the school, so I’d have to sign them out and know in advance what days I wanted them. I would also have to spend time creating an account for each of my 150 students. With everything else going on during my first two years of teaching, I didn’t desire to make the time to make arrangements to include this technology in my schedule. After learning about the impact immediate feedback has on student learning, I am now making it a priority to incorporate the Senteo system regularly into my classroom this coming year. I plan to give pretests, formative assessments, and summative assessments with this system. Before school starts I am going to communicate this goal to the technology specialist at my school and have her help me create accounts for each of my students so I’m ready to go once the students arrive.

Web 2.0

Introduction:

Web 2.0 is a broad term that describes a world wide web that is more connected and interactive than the first web generation. The first web generation (Web 1.0) had static pages of text and images that communicated information in on direction: from designer/publisher to customer/information consumer. The difference now, is that you do not have to be a person with any money to publish. There are many free sites and new applications such as wikis, blogs, websites, social networking sites, podcasts, and video creation sites that gives a larger voice to the common public. Web 2.0 innovations have also opened the minds of educators to new ways of thinking about teaching and learning.

Consider the following questions that focus on connecting instructional strategies to Web 2.0 technology:

1. What instructional strategies would fit well with using blogs in the classroom? Why?

- Collaboration - students and teachers could post comments to one another's posts

- Inquiry - students could blog about their understanding of questions they've posed, or even comment on what others have discovered

- Idea based - the teacher could state the big idea/metaphor, and students could blog about how this idea could be applied to another area of their life, or blog about what questions this understanding leads them to


2. What instructional strategies would not fit well with using blogs in the classroom? Why?

- Didactic - however, this strategy could be modified to incorporate blogging. For example, the teacher could teach the information, and the students could come up with examples and post them on their blog. This would broaden student's perspective on how this rule/information can be applied

3. How could you see Blogs being used in your classroom with your subject matter?

- I could see myself using blogs to enhance science discussions in middle school science. I have found it difficult to stimulate rich discussion on a topic where students respond to one another's ideas. I believe there may be several reasons why this seems to be so difficult. One reason could be lack of think time during a live discussion. Another reason could be the level of risk involved with sharing your ideas aloud with others. I think if students were to respond to each other's blogs a more interactive discussion could take place because these barriers would be minimized.