As I reflect back over what I have learned in this course, I find myself able to implement many new technological skills with my students. This course has shown me how to use blogs, wikis, and podcasts to engage students in creative learning activities. I had never used any of these forms of technology in my class before. I am more comfortable about using these new tools with my students. Technology is only as good as the instruction we provide to our students. The more I use these tools along with other emerging technologies, the better I can prepare my students for the 21st century workforce.
Technology is helping me create activities that implement essential critical skills needed for future decision making and communication. These activities build upon lessons and develop collaboration and teamwork that students need in society. With access to anyone, anywhere, at any time, technology is a vital tool to find information and communicate with others. Technology is emerging around us rapidly and the more we understand how to access this information, the better we will prepare students to compete in the global economy. We need to model and teach students how to use and gather this information so they can learn to apply these skills to educational learning.
The teacher’s role is changing to that of a facilitator. With so much information available to students, we must guide them on how to use and understand the information they access. With information easily obtainable students do not have to memorize as long as they can effectively research information. I am always trying to find new and creative ways of teaching lessons. With lessons I am using more critical thinking and collaboration skills in which students are taking more ownership of their learning. Technology is a good way for me to monitor projects and allows students to assist each other in completing tasks. Through these projects students gain valuable leadership, teamwork, and problem solving skills.
To continue my learning, I plan to attend workshops that provide ways to create innovative lessons with students. The more engaged students are in the class, the more achievements and successes they have. Also, I can collaborate with colleagues and professional to learn different types of technology to use with students. Researching different 2.0 webs, along with having students share their knowledge about technology, will build relationship and trust.
My first goal is to transform my classroom from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered classroom. I want to be a facilitator of 21st century skills by having students gain more responsibility and ownership of their learning. By doing this my students will foster the skills needed to be competitive in the real world. The second goal is to research new technologies that engage student interest in lessons and build higher level thinking. Through this technology I want to promote more project-based activities, compared to more traditional teaching methods. The more well rounded we can make our students, the better they will achieve in life. To accomplish these goals I plan to communicate with colleagues and administrators to see how we can change our procedures of banned sites and what steps we can take to make the internet safe and more resourceful to students.
Through the process of learning about how to apply new technologies in my class, I have changed how I approach my lessons. I am designing experiences that require students to formulate questions by engaging real-world, problem-solving activities. I am focusing more on how students apply what they are leaning to current issues in society. I am beginning to find ways to bring technology into lessons, even though much is banned at school. This is very time consuming, but well worth giving students access to new and emerging technologies. It is also building communication between my students and me. It is definitely making learning more interesting for all involved.
