This course was the first one where I felt the projects created were strongly tied to a central theme. The scenario was one of creating a flipped classroom where some content was shared online before students came to class. Then, the class time could be spent with hands on projects or the teacher assisting the students with any further learning that needed to occur. I felt like my first project of the lesson plan was a little rough around the edges in the beginning, because I did not quite understand the concept at first. However, as we began creating different multimedia projects, I began to understand how it all tied together. Each tool that I worked with was to support the original goals and objectives that I had identified in that lesson plan.
I feel like this taught me something very important. Using technology does not change what you teach. It may not even really change how you teach. The goal of technology integration is to assist the teacher in providing better instruction. So, I learned that I do not try to change my objectives to “fit in” the technology. I should rather find technology components that support what I am already doing. Thus, it made sense that we began the course with a discussion of instructional planning.
In my blog post on instructional planning, I had to focus on the DPA system of instructional design. I did not feel that this was really much of a plan. I think it was more of a segway into the DID system which was more helpful. What I like about the DID system is that it focuses on the learners. Basically, where are the learners, where do they need to be, and what do we need to do to get them there? I feel that this is one of the best ways to plan and design instruction.
After planning we began to discuss some of the major issues surrounding integration of technology. One major concern is finding room in the budget to incorporate the types of technology our students need to become 21st Century learners. However, a great thing about this course was that we focused on creating instructional materials with programs that were free. This is one way educators can overcome funding issues. It will not work for all cases, but it can be a great help. With the programs and software I learned about in this class, I can share these with other educators.
Much of the remainder of the class focused on creating projects that would “flip” the classroom and creating a website to be a communication portal for the instructor, students and parents. I learned a lot from these experiences. For one, I did not realize that Weebly had tools which allowed communication to occur so easily. The contact form that can be easily added is an excellent way to get feedback from students without giving them access to the teacher’s email address. This may not be an issue at all schools, but we are prohibited from contacting students via email or social media. The forums were another surprise from Weebly. The ability to add a forum allows for more communication between peers, parents, and the instructor, and it gives students practice using online communication tools to practice digital citizenship.
Throughout this course, we, as students, were exposed to many types of learning tools. Not only did this help us gain experience using them, but, for me, it also helped open my mind to new tools I could use with my own students.
One of the first tools we used in this course was the blog. I have used blogs in other classes. One thing I appreciate about keeping a blog for a course, is that you can go back to it after the course is finished and refresh your memory about the topics and concepts you learned there. It also serves as a learning portfolio for this class. The blog itself fulfilled many of the required standards such as reflection and sharing with the technology community and fellow educators. I like that it is easy to create and maintain. It is helpful to read others’ perspectives too. I was able to comment on my peers’ blogs and see their comments to me. Meaningful comments helped me see different perspectives on the same issues. If I were to use this with a group of students I think it would be a helpful tool for reflection. It could also be used as evaluation to see where they were at the beginning versus the end of a course. I don’t know that I could use this in the way I teach currently simply because I have so many students and due to their ages, sharing online would not be appropriate. However, if I were teaching older learners I think I would use it for the reasons I expressed above.
Podcasts were another learning tool in this course. Personally, I enjoy listening to podcasts because I like to create them, and it is interesting to see how others have constructed them. The downside to the podcasts in this course were that they were not portable. Using an aggregator such as iTunes to download them to mobile devices would be my preferred method. This way you can listen to them on the go. In a course like this, I don’t feel like podcasts are as effective because it is more effective to have a visual element to explore the concepts. I would definitely use podcasts in my own courses because for me it is an easy way to present knowledge to my students. I like the idea of using them in a flipped situation as we did for our courses this semester. That way the student can digest the information before coming to class and putting it to use. It frees the instructor to focus on perfecting skills as opposed to lecturing.
Video clips were also used in this class. I enjoy viewing video clips as an alternative to reading texts. That cannot always be done, but sometimes it is a helpful change. The best thing about video clips is that the student can see the concept illustrated, acted out, or at least a visual representation of some sort. I find clips very helpful in grasping new concepts. In fact, while reading about virtualization in another course this semester, I went online to find a video to help me understand it better. The video I found showed an illustration while the explanation was going on. That helped me more than the chapter in the book. I don’t know how much I will use video clips in my own teaching. Video clips that are already made will definitely be used in my instruction. But, if I have to create all of the videos myself, I will not be able to do so as often due to lack of time. However, the good thing about the clips is that once you create one, you can use it over and over again.
The major hands-on project that we created this semester was the website. It was a very good experience for me. I liked how we centered it on a mock scenario, and everything we created tied into that. I would also consider creating the podcast and videos as hands-on because I actually had to gather the data (audio or video) edit it, and upload it. It was helpful to create all of these projects with specific objectives in mind. This is exactly what we would do to integrate technology into our teaching as it is now. One thing I learned from this is that it does not have to be difficult. I definitely plan to use this in my teaching. I think having students create products such as these allows them to demonstrate their learning of the specific objectives, and it gives them experience using technology tools they will encounter in the real world.
I am quite proud of the electronic portfolio we created. I like the way I can showcase all of the work I did in one central location. Having the work tied to specific standards is also good practice. Imagine having high school students create a portfolio where they can show that they mastered the objectives. Not only do they show mastery, but they also show a deeper understanding of the entire process. I guess it helps them “own it”. I don’t think I can use electronic portfolios in my current position for the same reasons I stated about blogs above. However, I can teach other instructors about them and perhaps they can begin getting some use at my school. I think it would be a great learning experience for our students.
I feel like I had some strong and weak points in this course. A weak area for me was definitely the lesson planning and getting all of the projects to work with the objectives. I think that was only because I had to choose a topic which I do not actually teach. I have used the same ideas in most of my other courses, and I wanted to try something different. I have updated my lesson plan to reflect the entirety of the projects now, but at first I felt it was pretty bad. My strong point I think was creativity in making the different projects. I tried to think about them in new ways. For example, on the Scoop It activity, I decided to make each Scoop a choice for an independent research project. At first I was just going to make them articles for required reading, but the research idea seemed like more fun. It will also allow students to have more control over their learning topics.
As far as what I will take away from this course, I plan to use or at least teach others to use the tools I learned about here. They are all so easy to implement, none of them took extraordinary amounts of time to create, and they are more effective that text or the dreaded PowerPoint presentations. For future learning, I would like to find a way to use the concepts that I don’t feel comfortable using with my students now (for example eportfolio). I’m not entirely sure I will be able to do this with my current position, but I am open to finding a way to do so. I also want to continue exploring these types of technologies, if not to use with my own students, so that I can share them with my colleagues. I feel I gained a lot of experience over the course of this semester that can be very valuable to my students and to other instructors.