Edtech 541 Reflection
- Part One: Reflect on the entire course. Include -
- What you have learned?
- How theory guided development of the projects and assignments you created?
- How the course work demonstrates mastery of the AECT standards? (Note: If you are not in the M.E.T. program, you can omit this.)
- How you have grown professionally?
- How your own teaching practice or thoughts about teaching have been impacted by what you have learned or accomplished in this course? What will you do differently as an educator as a result of this course?
What I learned
I learned how to thoughtfully incorporate new technological tools into my everyday lessons. It's been easy to get into a habit and a comfort zone by using the same technological tool over and over again. The fact is that the world is always changing and technology is always evolving and emerging everyday. It's important to stay on top of what is coming in the technological world. For instance, Powerpoint is a useful a tool for organizing information into slides for a presentation. Now a days though there is more advance presentation software out there like Prezi.com and E-Maze. Both are a very powerful and easy to use presentation software that is more advance and easy to use.
Educational Theory
I'm definitely a constructivist believer and therefore I use several project-based learning approaches in my STEM courses. Student's have access to a learning management system that allows them to work at their own pace. I'm very much in a facilitator role in my classroom. I guide students through some of the projects by using guided questions. Students are in control of their education. They have a set goal of what has to be accomplished for an A, B, etc. They love that they know what they need to do to get the grade that they want. This has led to several unique projects and students being successful in their projects. Some students take more time on some projects than other leading to a great diversity of examples to use the next year.
Demonstration of AECT Standards
Throughout this course I was challenged to create, use, assess and evaluate content and emerging technological tools and resources to enhance my pedagogy of the STEM curriculum in the classroom. Through the practice of careful selection of technological resources and tools I was able to determine better means of supporting student learning. Throughout the course I was challenged to effectively demonstrate the assessing of new resources through a relative advantage chart that was created and several reflective blogs over the relative advantage of using technological tools. I also researched new technological tools to help support my belief of having adaptive and assistive technology in all classrooms to encourage all students to learn through the use of technology.
Professional Growth and Impact
This course has impacted me on a professional level. Throughout this course I was presented with opportunities to develop cross curricular lessons that brought in English, History, and Art into the STEM classroom. In doing so this really opened up some lanes of communication with the English and History departments for the Career and Technology Education courses. I was able to introduce new technologies like the ebook creators to the English department. Since then all the English content teachers have incorporated this into the course with positive feedback from the students body. They have enjoyed using the tool to work on both argumentative and persuasive writing using story telling through their ebooks they created. They enjoyed being able to take pictures to place in their ebooks to really make each one unique and individually their own. This course has really developed me for my role on the Technology Committee for my school. Through my research and assessment of new tools for multiple different content areas I now can help my colleagues support student learning through the use of technology.Part II Self Assessment
Content of Blogs (65/70)
After looking through my blogs throughout the course, I believe that my content in them has been rich and full of thought. I believe that I did well on all of my post except for the video blog in which I'm not real comfortable with being in front of camera.
Readings and Resources(20/20)
I always had resources/references listed and cited throughout the blog at least two per each.
Timeliness (15/20)
This was the struggle for me. Being a full time teacher and a father of two boys with a wife that works evening making me a stay at home Dad throughout the week made it a real struggle. I always tried to have my post up by Friday night but normally ended up posting early in the morning on Saturday. I was able to effectively respond to others earlier in the week.
Response to Others (10/20)
I feel that my response ranged from being substantial to just being agreeable and thankful to others. I believe that I could of given better feedback to some than I did.
