Reflection Essay

Reflecting back on this course I think of the statement that consistently arises in my mind "Putting old wine in new bottles." When I first heard and thought about that statement I realized that many activities I planned with "technology" were just "old wine". My thoughts were "Well, I am using my smartboard to create interesting powerpoints. However, after completing the course I see that technology integration for today's learners (truely learning) is vastly different.

I am stronger in not fearing using technology and going places with technology that I previously avoided. Some examples are my new workable knowledge of creating a blog and a wiki. When I refer to workable knowledge I mean not just knowing what they are, but actually knowing how to effectively use them in learning. One example of this is that in our upcoming "Charactization Unit" all students will be reading the same novel "Among the Hidden" by Margret Haddix. What a perfect opportunity to incorporate a blog response session. I am working with my PLC to develop this system for students, a system that I am proud to say they are open to. They see the value in posting critical thinking questions and having the students respond. (There is always a way to know when I am making them think critically because they say "This is really hard, or I'm going to have to really think about this."-Mission accomplished!) I am able to share many ideas that are effective in practice to my students making myself a better teacher and my students better independent learners.
I recognize now that learning should be even more student centered that I thought before with myself acting as a guide. The correct student centered model should look like:
The teacher posing a critical thinking question or discussion.
The students searching out the information using technology resources such as the internet.
The student with the guide of the teacher being able to distinguish what is reliable information.
The student reporting thoughts and providing justification from the collected resources.
I find myself more and more referring for the student to discover the answer to a question posed or if the students "debate" about what is correct. This is an excellent opportunity to send them to the laptops and make them provide at least two justifications that are reliable that support their answer. I feel that part of being a teacher and fostering new age learners is to use this as a "hinge-point" in the lesson. When I refer to "hinge-point" I mean this is where the lesson could go either way after assessing what they are "getting" or "not getting" and creating challenges.
As a professional teacher I can continue my learning and integration of technology to create effective learning by completing two ideals: One is to effectively utilize the resources available to me such as our school technology coach and student's scores on the technology assessment they take at the beginning and end of the year. I can gather this data and see what skills do they lack in and what strengths do they already have. One weakness I am already aware of is the "language of technology" often times we see that the student has the skill the assessment is asking of them, but they do not realize that is what they are doing because they do not know the "technical terms" for the exercise or item. This leads me to one goal I intended to work on which is using "technical terms" and ensuring they also use the terms with intention. Students and teachers need to be able to "speak the language". Another goal I wish to accomplish is to use the technology to effectively challenge the students. With this goal I want to create more critical thinking technology based lessons this may be difficult because in a traditional setting parents want more "paper/pencil" learning. However, with the amount of information that students are accustomed to acquiring in a short amount of time they are not interested in paper/pencil learning.
I do not think that students do not need some paper/pencil learning, I just feel that this is not where they need to be to compete in a job market upon completing school. These technology skills will be what the employers are seeking and they need to be able to run with the pack.
Overall, this course has been a challenge for myself. I often found myself "lost" trying to learn the new material because I am a visual learner. This is an aspect that I need to keep in mind when demonstrating new material to my students. The videos that were simple "hands and pictures" were a tremendous help for me to understand the concept and language. I gained many ideas over the course that I know will prove to be useful in demonstrating and integrating technology in a workable manner.