Reflection

Reflecting on the past eight weeks, I have developed many new skills. Until this course, "Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society," I had never created a wiki or a podcast. I had created a blog for a previous class but not an aggregator account or RSS feeds. These were relatively easy to figure out yet eye opening time savers. The wiki assignment was a great exercise in collaborative work using web 2.0 tools. The podcast presented many challenges but through help sites and much trial and error, I was able to successfully create and share a podcast. These projects gave me a lot of confidence in my abilities to figure out and use new technologies.

To continue expanding my knowledge of technology integration, I plan to continuously visit the blogs I have bookmarked and the sites listed on the wikis created by the three groups during this course. There are so many great ideas being shared by educators around the world. I also plan to attend technology inservice courses when offered.

One goal for increasing technology is to create one project per trimester that incorporates the new tools learned in this course. I already have my students creating a podcast for a culminating social studies project this spring. Next year, I hope to create a book club blog site, and a science wiki project.

Another goal for increasing the integration of technology in the classroom is to become an instructional leader for technology in my building. Currently we do not have any elementary technology teachers (those positions were eliminated last year) and the classroom teachers are expected to teach the tech curriculum in addition to the core curriculum. I hope to share ideas with staff that demonstrates technology is not an additional piece, rather something that can be easily integrated into the core curriculum to enhance teaching and learning. By sharing my knowledge and enthusiasm for using technology, I hope to help make other teachers more comfortable using technology with their students. I feel it is part of my professional responsibility to be a resource for others in the building and help them become more interested/comfortable with new tools and ideas.