Technology Course Experience

This course was not at all what I expected. It was surprisingly designed to be very hands-on and forced the student to be introduced to many aspects of technological resources available for instruction in our own classroom. The students not only learned about new technology, but also evaluated how technology can be used effectively in classroom instruction. The emphasis was to consider developing curricula using technology as a primary means of instruction, rather than a secondary means. Ultimately, what I learned in this course surpassed my expectations and offered much more than I thought it would.
We addressed issues and strategies for developing effective instructional technology use in classroom education. We examined current curricular standards, methods of inquiry, and assessment models in technology. The emphasis was to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to maximize student success and help them prepare for future endeavors as well. We also addressed the importance of the State Long Range Technology plans, aligning with those of the district, school and ultimately national standards as well.
In this course, we covered a wide variety of topics that should helped me grow not only as an innovative and engaging teacher, but also as a teacher who is concerned with making education accessible and relevant to all students; the 21st century student. We further explored the role of the teacher as an agent of technological change throughout the course. The teacher is an individual who actively contributes toward establishing a pluralist society. S/He can accomplish this goal by making the classroom one of the most important settings where gender equity, antidiscriminatory principles, multicultural understanding, and (for the purposes of this course) technological advancement are modeled and practiced.
More often than not, getting experienced teachers to stretch out of their comfortable (mastered) realm, can be difficult. Not only is teaching technology to teachers (or teacher candidates) who don’t know much about technology a challenge, taking it a step further, i.e., incorporating technology into teaching and learning is truly a unique challenge. This educational technology course incorporated several elements to enhance personal interactive learning in a cyber-class. Some of those vital elements that I valued included, access to a coach (or aid online), relevant activities, use of discussion boards, online exams, open-ended student projects (that we can still make use of, should we desire to do so), weekly communication through the overviews and (feedback or comments on work would have been helpful), and video lessons. This course required a lot of prior planning and organization. The excess of articles can be used as a future resource, but I think having to offer feedback for every one was unnecessarily challenging. For an online educational technology course; planning and time management are probably the most critical elements for success; which is usually a struggle for me.
The overall goal; to deepen your technology integration to improve the achievement of all students was certainly met. This course provided development that can be put into programs and/or online instructional materials for any K-12 educator. As a technology leader, I could offer these tools as online/e-mail tips, pamphlets with steps and benefits or and customized face-to-face workshops to increase the level of technology integration in the district, my campus or just develop a customized professional development program for a teacher. This technology class allowed us to use news, techniques, and theories of effective use of technology in education for use and consideration when implementing professional development as teacher leaders as well as leaders of students.
Blogging has evolved into a mass phenomenon. There are more people getting caught into blogs accidentally, there are more experiences shared by different personalities also. New trends have emerged, niche blogs appeared and blogging became what we see today. It’s a bit hard to perfectly define, but may be described as a concept of online information sharing. Whether people perceive blogging as an alternative to classic forms of journalism, tools for self-help, an online job or the simple morning coffee reading, nowadays, blogging has a massive educational value. With educational blogging I’m not only talking about edublogs; those blogs maintained by teachers or people involved in the educational system, but also about blogs that give information on different topics. As discussed in the previous weeks work, most blogs allow anyone to chime in on a given topic. Due to the nature of this open discussion, it is apparent that the consequence is that blogs many not be a credible source with advise, but laxity.
In schools, however, key stakeholders could use blogs in many ways. Blogs are ideal for principals to quickly post news items for their school communities. Upcoming special events, recent awards won by students or staff, classroom highlights, reminders, lunch menus, extracurricular activities, deadlines, and other newsletter-type items are extremely well-suited for blogs and are quick and easy ways to keep a school community informed. Community members often are interested in the progress of a school's ongoing activities. Examples might include building a new facility, implementing new curricula, hiring new staff, trying to pass a levy or referendum, and other school initiatives. Regular posts to update stakeholders on the progress of these types of activities can go a long way toward building goodwill and keeping community members
Informed.
Overall, I was introduced to a few new technology pieces that I never considered using in my own classroom or school. I’ve learned a lot of useful information from this course that I hope to be able to use indefinitely.