Final Reflection

The time has come where we are wrapping up a semester of EME2040, technology class. If I'm being completely honest, at the beginning of the course, I didn't know what to expect and I didn't really feel like I was going to benefit as much as I actually did. Having taken a "teaching technology to elementary students" class years ago, I assumed it would be similar to what I did back then. However, it ended up being nothing like that class. Now, reflecting on the content of this class, I can honestly say, not only have I learned but I actually feel as though it should be part of every teacher's PDP to take a semester of EME2040. It's easy to get stuck in a cyclic teaching rut and teach how you already know to teach and not integrate new innovative ways of doing things, especially if what has been done is known to have worked, by your observation. The content and nature of this course has been so resourceful that I feel like it would be hard not incorporate all of the impressive Web 2.0 tools that we were introduced to and utilized this spring such as: Prezi, Haiku Deck, ToonDoo, Storybird, Gliffy, Wordle, Voki, and Padlet, just to name a few.

For the duration of the course we created blog posts about various topics ranging from digital divides to integrating technology for special needs and ESOL students. We participated in class discussion forums, and were able to collaborate with each other in a more meaningful way than being in a traditional classroom setting. The fact that the course was a virtual class made it all that much more meaningful and had a greater impact for me because it was my first online class. Creating instructional wikis and collaborative lesson plans as well as rubrics were all informative assignments that left me eager to share with colleagues and use with future students.  Assistive technologies was also something that was interesting to learn about as it provided ideas to adapt a classroom to meet the needs of special students. Learning further about legal and ethical issues that may develop with the use of technology in the classroom left me a little anxious and apprehensive about adding photos from the internet to any  of my work, in fear of not citing it properly. I'm sure with practice, it will get easier in the future. The useful site that was introduced was the digital bookmarking tool, Delicious. Being able to retrieve important websites and resources no matter what computer I'm working from is something that I feel will be life changing as a teacher. There were many times when I thought I saved a site to my computer home but it was actually at my work computer and it seemed like the resources I needed were never where I was, however del.ici.ous.com will be a great asset to lesson planning in the future.

This course was incredibly well thought out and assignment objectives were issued in excellent sequential order. If there were any suggestions I can make, it would be for the assignment descriptions to be more clear and concise. There were times when I felt I was unclear about what was being asked to do, and had to ask many questions to be sure it was being done correctly. Perhaps it was my reading comprehension that was throwing me off, however, that was the only issue I ran into.

Overall, I have had an EXCELLENT experience and value each and every lesson that I was taught by Professor Coleman's modules. This course can be beneficial to students, emerging teachers, or existing teachers that are looking to evolve into 21st Century educators. This was just the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure, but the material covered was a terrific start. Kudos to Professor Coleman on a job well done! It's been a pleasure!

Resources:

[AJ+]. (2015, September 16). 5 Technologies That Will Change Classroom Education. Retrieved 2016, April 30, from https://youtu.be/loFL5gT_m8I.