Reflection

Before beginning this course, I thought I was pretty tech savvy in the classroom. After all I use PowerPoint presentations and video streaming sites. However, I quickly realized I was not as savvy as I thought. In the video, The Emergence of Educational Technology, Dr. Thornburg’s statements about doing different things and doing things differently opened my eyes to the fact that the technology I was using fell into the doing things differently category. To be effective in exploring the many other advantages of technology, I realized I need to concentrate more on doing different things in the classroom. Creating a blog for students to post pictures of geometric elements they see in every day life seemed to be the easiest way to begin expanding the use of technology in my classroom. Having students work in teams to create wiki pages for reviewing chapter objectives was the second idea I plan to use to incorporate more technology and the idea of doing different things.

The role of a teacher is changing. Do I think the lecture and drill & practice methods will ever be completely abandon? Probably not. There may always be a place for the old “tried and true” methods, but I think the place they hold in the classroom is shrinking dramatically. Dr Thornburg talks about the teacher being a facilitator for the students. This change will not happen overnight, I believe the process will be gradual for most of us. There is so much information available, just a click away, for which the teacher needs to be there to guide the students, showing them how to gather, process and apply the information. Guiding students through information instead of giving information through lectures and having students apply information through real life scenarios instead of drill & practice seems like a good way to move our students into their future careers.

When teachers become facilitators, the move from a teacher-centered to learner-centered classroom is apparent. One of my goals is to develop a long-term project where more responsibility is placed on the student. I hope to come up with project of my own as well as adapt other’s projects to fit with my students’ needs. I was impressed with Reeder’s geometry project on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills site and would like to create a version of her project for my students. My students like for me to help them each step of the way when beginning something new. Just today one of my students said, “Mrs. Reid, you are overestimating our abilities.” Many times it is the students who underestimate their own abilities. They need to be allowed to make mistakes and have teachers guide them through the mistakes as well as have victories and have teachers celebrate their achievements.

Another goal is to explore the idea of podcasts more. When considering taping lessons I start to get a little nervous, but the benefits for students who are absent, homebased, or even students who just want to hear the lesson again are limitless. Before I would be comfortable doing this, I feel I need more practice with this medium. My hope is to get some of my colleagues onboard with the idea and do some podcasts as a joint project.

After taking this course, I have gained not only confidence about using technology, but renewed enthusiasm for it as well. Incorporating more technology in the classroom should spark more interest for the students as well as help me become more of a facilitator instead of just a “fact-giver”. I have enjoyed putting new things in place in my classroom. The information received during this course has given me a broader perspective not only of what is available to my students, but also of what I am capable of as a teacher.