I have always felt confident in my technology skills as a professional. This course has helped me to further develop my own technology skills as a professional teacher in many ways. First, I learned how to use web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, and podcasting. Web 2.0 tools are concepts I had heard about but had never known how to use them, create them, or knew their purpose. Now, I can take these tools into the classroom and introduce them to my students to better prepare them for the 21st-century workplace. Employers are using many of these web 2.0 tools today. Additionally, I can teach other staff members how to use these tools in their classroom. The aforementioned examples are just a few ways that this course has helped me to develop my technology skills professionally.
I have deepened my knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning process in various ways. This course has helped me to see that students need to be more actively engaged in their learning. This means that I need to be more of a facilitator and guide the students learning instead of lecturing the students. In addition, students have access to a wide variety of technology at home and at school. Students should, therefore, be using the technology to prepare them for the future jobs that have yet to be created. With this understanding of the unknown future employment opportunities, I need to ensure that my students are prepared. Likewise, students need to have real-world problems to solve creatively to help prepare them for those jobs. Furthermore, students need to have the basic skills of keyboarding, searching for valid information on the Internet, and be able to determine the validity of that information. Using this knowledge and information to guide my teaching will better prepare my students for the future.
My thinking has changed from being teacher-centered to being learner-centered. When I plan my lessons now, I try to think of ways that the students can be engaged more in small group discussions. I have even looked into creating some centers where the students can explore concepts on an independent level or in small groups. Another way that my teaching focus has changed is by trying to incorporate more technology rich experiences. The students used to go to the computer for taking exams on the computer and for a few minutes once a week they worked on a math or reading program. I would now like for them to work in small groups researching information about something that is important to them. I would also like to have the students work a blog throughout the year.
There are many ways to continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement. Researching new technology and how it is used in the classroom is one way I can continue to grow. Another way is to reach out to other technology specialists in my district for ideas to use in the classroom. Additionally, I can take coursework at my local college. Most importantly, just by using the available technology will help to ensure that I do not lose the technology skills that I have recently gained.
Numerous long-term goals come to mind immediately for transforming my classroom environment. One goal I would like to reach within two years would be to take a technology survey of my students each year to see what the students know and have access to. With this information I would like to have the students share what they know about technology with the other students in the classroom. Another goal I would like to meet within two years is to successfully teach my students basic computer skills. Concepts such as how to turn on and off the computer, where the keys are on the keyboard, and searching the Internet for information are examples of some of the basic computer skills I would like to teach my students.
Meeting these goals will take some time and planning. I plan on teaching the students how to turn on and off the computers by assigning a student that job in the classroom. For one week, it will be that student’s job to make sure the computers are ready for the day. Then that person will teach the next person for the following week. Each of the 5 computers in my classroom has a typing tutorial on them. I will send groups of students to the computer to practice keyboarding skills each day. Finally, I will guide the students through some lessons on locating valid information on the Internet while doing animal reports.
In regards to the checklist that was done at the onset of this class, many of my answers have changed. In the “Practices to Support 21st Century Skills” section, many of my answers changed from “rarely” to “sometimes,” with a few going to the “often.” For example, “Providing students with opportunities for sharing and presenting information in multiple ways, with a choice of medium (text, multi-media, graphics, etc.), my answer changed from “rarely” to “often.” In the “Developing Technology skills for the school and workplace environments” section, my answers changed in “Promote the development of leadership and technology skills in my students and colleagues” from “sometimes” to “often.”
