The course has helped me develop my own technology skills by expanding on my previous knowledge of blogs, wikis, podcasts and student learning development needs in the 21st century. I have known about blogs but not in an educational setting. Knowing now how to set up a blog and use it in the classroom by having students do problems on the blog or critique someone else’s entry will continue to help me connect with the students as well as give them the ability to use for their future. I knew about Wikipedia and I heard mainly bad things about it because anybody could edit the information. This course helped me to understand that there are enough people out there to “police” the wiki’s and keep their knowledge as accurate as possible. I would use a wiki in my community project where the students would post their idea of how to change one aspect of their community and then I would get the community to give us ideas on how to improve it. I have been listening to podcasts for about five years now. Thus it was really exciting to make a podcast of my own, I still need to work on how to edit it better. I would use podcasts as a way for students to get extra assistance in getting their work done. They could listen to me doing and follow along. Understanding of how students are now developing and the skills the students will need also follows along with ways I have deepened my knowledge. Students are now needing to be incorporated into the 21st century skills which I believe are communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. When I fully develop my curriculum to incorporate all those skills students will benefit and will want to be life long learners.
One of the most easiest ways to continue my education with technology is to keep up to date on the blogs I started following and communicate my own findings of this knowledge.
My two long term goals for my district would be increase bandwidth of our internet and get students to blog about a project. I plan on increasing the bandwidth by one finding out the cost to do so by two getting support from other teachers. I would create fundraisers to get to that goal and present that information to the board. Non of my answers have changed through this course, I do believe it has opened my eyes to teaching the next generation of students.
My two long term goals for my district would be increase bandwidth of our internet and get students to blog about a project. I plan on increasing the bandwidth by one finding out the cost to do so by two getting support from other teachers. I would create fundraisers to get to that goal and present that information to the board. Non of my answers have changed through this course, I do believe it has opened my eyes to teaching the next generation of students.
