For this course, I had envisioned gaining an overview of how to integrate technology into the classroom and an overview of the internship plan. Through this course, I read advice and strategies on integrating technology written in journal articles and I reviewed the Texas STAR charts, the E-rate plan, and the technology TEKS for students in kindergarten through 8th grade. I used many web tools for the first time such as blogs, wikis, and wordle. I believe the only way to learn how to use these tools is to start using them and learn as you go. Also, once I used these tools, I began to see all the possibilities they create for education. I created an internship plan that I am excited to begin working on. I don’t believe I would have been able to create all of the activities for the plan if I had not received the basics of technology integration in the first four weeks of the course.
I already find the information and skills I received from this course relevant to my job and I’m sure I will find more and more uses for them in the upcoming year. First, I can use much of what I learned in my own classroom. I gained many ideas and strategies for integrating technology to teach my students 21st century skills and also to maximize their learning of the subject area. Also, I feel that I can use the information and skills I received from this course to help my fellow teachers. I can inform them of information or ideas that I have seen or read about that I find will suit their teaching style and subject area. Examples of areas I feel I can assist my fellow teachers are creating classroom blogs and wikis, finding online resources to enhance their lessons, and strategies on classroom management and safety when using technology.
I believe that I achieved all the outcomes I had envisioned for this course. I did not expect to learn about topics in depth, I expected to learn a little about each topic and then cover these topics in depth in future courses. I believe I was successful in carrying out the course assignments. In the beginning, I had to relearn how to use APA style for referencing and learned the importance of including references in assignments.
From this course, I learned that I would like to work as a technology facilitator in a school. I love to use technology in the classroom and see great benefits from it. I believe this program will allow me to improve upon my own integration of technology and will allow me to share this information with other teachers. While I do not like to be a leader in the sense that I am in charge of adults like a principal, I do believe that I possess the leadership skills to be responsible for technology integration in my school. I also learned that while my attitudes about technology are much different than many of my colleagues, I agreed with a lot of the experts in the field from the articles we read. Finally, I learned that I do not know near as much about technology as I thought I did. When I started the program, I knew a lot about the technologies that we have access to in my school, but I know very little about technologies that we do not currently have access to. If I want to be a technology leader, I must learn how to use these technologies and tools so that I can bring them into my district and show others how to use them.
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