EDLD+5364+Final+Assessment

1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?  When I first saw the title of this course, Teaching With Technology, and read the description I thought that maybe I would pick up one thing that I might use in my classroom. This course exceeded that expectation greatly. I did not have a specific vision for this class because the term technology can encompass so many things. This class has shown me new ways to use familiar tools. I am pleased that I have learned to take things that I do everyday and use them in a new way and cannot wait to pass this on to my students. The exposure to GoogleDocs and GoogleSites is going to change the way I teach in the very near future because it allows me to overcome a technology barrier that we are have on our campus. The Google offerings are the collaborative environment I have been searching for to use in my classroom. 

2. To the extent that you achived the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not? I am a college level instructor. One of the difficulties that I had with this course is that the content is geared for public school educators. However, the lessons that I learned in this course apply just the as strongly at the college level. My students are asking for the same change in the educational environment. Many, though not all, of my students are digital natives and as such they demand that technology be part of their learning experience. I realized about two years ago that I cannot reach them all with just the traditional lecture type of class and I have slowly been adapting my class to add other tools and techniques to my teaching. I have found that the more interactive I can make the class the better my students perform. The next interactive tool that I will incorporate into my class will be collaborative workspaces. Not only is this tool relevant in the college classroom but it is relevant in the workplace, which is the lesson that I hope to teach in the coming semester. 

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?

The first assignment that I read from //Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works// filled me with ideas for my classroom. Each time I had to read from that book I was taking notes, not just for this class but also for my classroom. I wrote in one of my discussion postings that I plan on reading the entire book as soon as this class is complete. I had the same experience with many of the articles that I read and the videos that I watched. I have made notations on my wiki so that I will have record of what I read and watched, which will allow me to return to those sources at a later date. I believe that I have met all the of the outcomes to successfully complete the course but it will take a number of months to meet the outcomes that I have laid out in my notes because the list is long.  4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

I have completed all of the assignments for this course though it has taken me a number of late nights to do so. Overall I would say that the group project has been a positive experience for me but I have not enjoyed all of it. It was difficult to coordinate the schedules of five busy educators but I believe that we have presented a very string plan for the scenario. I continue to enjoy the discussion board. I enjoy interacting with my classmates and reading their postings. I am pleased that we used our wiki spaces and our blogs but I had to really work hard to keep up with everything that I had to post. I find it hard to believe that tools such as these are blocked on some campuses. I hope that this will change in the future so that teachers will have more Web 2.0 tools at their disposal.

5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?  As someone who has been immersed in technology on a daily basis for years, I thought that I was well versed in different technology tools and how to use them. I now realize that using a particular tool for a long period of time may prevent you from seeing other uses for that tool. I am also guilty of not allowing some forms of technology in my classroom because I only saw how they could be disruptive. I am now looking at these “nuisances” and trying to imagine a way to use them to the student’s advantage. I have already begun to listen more to my students in an effort to better understand their perspective and to learn what it is they need me to teach and how they need me to teach it. My program will lead the way on our campus by diversifying the kinds of equipment we use so that our students are exposed to a variety of tools and programs while completing their degree.