5603 Concepts of Educational Technology “Course Reflection”
When I first knew the title of this first course, and I reflect back on that moment, I have to be honest the outcomes I had for this course few if any, except getting through this course. I see and read the word “Concepts” in the title of a course, I start to reflect on previous undergraduate courses with that word in the title, and I think not another class on theories. In the first week, the course was living up to the pre-conceived notions of a “Concepts” course, with the surveys and assessments completed that week on technology use and personality. This all changed with week 2, when I created a Blog and I choose to read “Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for the Classroom” by Will Richardson for my technology leadership book reading. Then I realized I would gain real actionable knowledge I can take back to classroom today and put to use. The following three weeks did not disappoint me on the content and my whole outlook improved.
I obviously meted and exceeded my outcomes or expectations of this course. Then again, I did not set my expectation very high. In the second week after completing the readings and the Blog activity, I realized I greatly under estimated the knowledge I would gain from taking this course. The course works in weeks 2, 3 and 4 have so much relevance to my work. I am a technology application instructor and I have no excuse for not implementing the Blogs and Wikis in my curriculum. I now understand the students in my classroom better with the knowledge gained about the “Digital Natives” and how they process information in an entirely different manner as me a “Digital Immigrant.”
Upon reflection, I did not set initial high outcomes for myself in this course, and I now know that was a mistake on my part. This all reminds me of the ole saying, “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” it also applies to a course title. In this course, I compelled to chance my attitudes and outcomes for the course. The first outcome became how can I implement these concepts in my curriculum and second introduce them to my colleagues at work. I have not completed either of these outcomes from the knowledge gained in this course, but they are works in progress. It is going to take time to complete these outcomes. First, I have to fully implement these course concepts of collaborative learning environment with the aides of technology. When students leave my class and attended another they talk about what they do in my classroom. The good word of mouth is the best advertisement, students hear and other teachers hear the good news and want to know what going on in Mr. McClaren’s class.
For the most part, I was successful in completing my assignments. The course assignment where an examples of how I or any other instructor should structure our assignments. The assignments where rigorous and relevant to what I need to know as a future technology leader. The rigor challenges student and if you did not give the assignment the time and effort it would be sub-standard result, the assignments are all completely accomplishable.
I learned from this course my shortcomings when it pertains to education technology. The thing l learned about myself is how little I knew about technology education, and I find myself being embarrassed by that fact. I read the readings and do the activity then reflect that I should already know this, especially when it came to Star Chart, Texas 2020 Plan, and Title II Part D of NCLB. The district has spent time and resources providing state of art computer labs and for the most part students can experience that technology if they enroll in a technology application class or use the library computes, but it is not there in “everyday” use for the student in the core classes. The knowledge gained about my school district technology plan surprised me. The week that I had to research the technology plans was a holiday week, and being no one at administration to give me a copy, I was under the assumption that such a plan would be published on the school district web site. I found out that the school district qualified for E-Rate discount because we are a Title I school district, and the district has not applied with the Universal Service Fund. The facts I have discovered about myself and my school district has inspired me to ask the right question to the powers at be and to move others and myself out of neutral gear on instructional technology in the core classroom.
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