EDLD+5364+Course+Reflection+Prompts

1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?

The learning approach I often take is one of open-mindedness. Pre-judging material before it is presented can create roadblocks in education and can be detrimental to the learning process. With that said, it is unrealistic to say that I had no thoughts after reading the syllabus and the Week 1 Overview. On the contrary, I was excited to be in a class focusing on technology. I expected to learn about the latest research and materials available to teachers and I believe this was delivered. The introduction of the Cast website including the UDL lesson and book builder programs proved to be very interesting and useful. The most timely information deals with situations where technology becomes more of an assistive device to students with handicaps. This is an area where the course exceeded my expectations and learning certainly did occur. I was anticipating more examples of integrating technology as it seems the Pitler text should provide based on the title and was somewhat disappointed. However the course as a whole was timely and informative which is extremely important in technology education.

2. To the extent that you achived the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?

Certainly the information I learned is still relevant. I am a classroom teacher and everything we read, watched, or researched increased my knowledge and awareness of the technology currently available. As I said above the Cast website provides tools and information for dealing with students with disabilities which is one of the hottest issues in education today. Providing equal learning opportunities for every student is not only necessary but required in the classrooms today and in the future. Not only will this help with our disabled students, but researchers are finding more evidence every day that suggests learning occurs very differently for every individual. The brain research is astounding and points to differentiating at the key to successful learning. The technology available today not only makes this possible, it makes it feasible in the steadily growing classrooms of today’s public schools. I will be putting some of this information directly into my lessons beginning this January when school resumes.

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?

I think the only outcome that I do not feel comfortable with is exactly how this big use of technology looks in practice. More specific examples of lesson planning for differentiation or models of cooperative learning classrooms would be helpful. As I begin the process of putting together lessons I will be seeking these examples on my own which may slow me down. The overall effect will be that some things can not be implemented right away or even worse I will be making mistakes that others have made which could have been avoided had I been exposed to their information sooner. I learn by example and tend to repeat things I experience so if this style of teaching is something I want to master I will need to seek sources/classes that teach in that particular style.

4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

The cooperation and and group dynamic of my team was the key to my success in this course. We were a strong group and worked well together which facilitated my ability to master the objectives and complete the assignments. The weekly overviews as well as the to do lists are very helpful in keeping things organized and students informed of expectations. The coach for this course, Creighton, was motivational in his addresses to the class which I appreciated through these late nights! I only had one problem here in the last week where I inadvertently chose the wrong assignment from my folder and subsequently uploaded the wrong file. Once uploaded the file can not be changed. I knew my mistake immediately but could not make the change. I feel this is a programming issue with the software that should be presented to the designers as it is unreasonable that students should not be able to update their assignments until the point where the assignment is due.

5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

Honestly, I am not sure that I learned anything about myself or my attitudes. There were topics that I felt more strongly about than others. However this was not surprising, I am very opinionated and usually outspoken but with experience I have learned the fine art of “filtering” myself so as to be more aware of and respect the opinions of others. As for the technology and leadership skills, I think I did learn that I am further ahead of the majority of my classmates regarding the specific pieces of software we were using. I have a large knowledge base in that area and found that to be helpful. My leadership skills are still growing. I tend to shy away from leading groups of my peers as I don’t want to be in charge where I might cause another person to feel uncomfortable expressing themself because of my overt opinions. I prefer to lead as I teach from the perspective of a guide. This was somewhat necessary especially when dealing with creating videos and uploading them to the Internet.