Understanding Impact of Technology on Education Reflection

This course has helped me develop some very specific technological skills that I can employ in my classroom. Before this course, I had only responded to blogs, but with this course, I have learned not only to create a blog, but I have also developed the skills to teach my students how to create their own. Learning about and creating wikis was also an important skill. Lastly, creating an audio podcast was interesting, however, I would have liked to do something more with pod-casting than just recording a short interview. I think using and creating pod-casts in the classroom is an area of opportunity that I will continue to learn about in the future.

I think that by actually creating blogs, wikis, and audio pod-casts has deepened my own knowledge of the learning process by understanding the questions that my students themselves may have as they learn about these tools. I was also reminded that learning is a lifelong process, something that Digital Natives need to embrace in the Informational Age that we are embarking on.

I believe it has always been my philosophy not to be teacher-centered, but rather learner-centered. This course has only reemphasized the important of moving away from the century old teaching style of lecturing and the teacher being the holder of knowledge to employing strategies that allows students to "discovery" through guidance and direction.

I already subscribe to a number of education technology blogs as well as a few magazines that keep me informed of the cutting edge of technology and the implications for education. This will help me stay abreast of all the possibilities for my classroom. It is also my goal to become a technology leader once I am hired full-time. I believe in order to increase student achievement we must involve the school as a whole and not just the classroom.

My first goal is to actually get a full-time teaching position, not just a sub. Once I do, then I can set up my classroom in an age appropriate, learner-centered style. Of course, the problem in my state is budget cuts that have caused temporary hiring freezes. I must sell myself and my skills in order to stand out in a very competitive field. Secondly, I want to become a technology leader in my school, where I teach other teachers how to "do different things" with technology rather than just "doing things differently." I want to take what I have learned and what I expect to continue to learn and pass on that knowledge to others. I want to help teachers who are "afraid" to use technology and expose them to it in a way that helps them to become comfortable with it. I think that by continuing my education and taking what I have learned and employing it in my won classroom will help me obtain this goal.