Reflection for the Course

After completing this course I am even more energized and excited to complete my Masters in Integrating Technology in the Classroom. I thought that I knew a lot about various technological applications, but my eyes have been opened to a world of possibilities. I have only used blogs for my personal interest, but have never created my own nor used them for educational purposes. I feel more confident in using blogs and wikis with my class now that I have practiced and created them on my own.
With podcasts, I believe my perspective has shifted more into the realm of student-centered. I can trust my students to create meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences for themselves if I give them the right tools to use. My students can now record their own voice and link it with a picture to demonstrate their grasp of a concept.
My plan is to continue researching and testing new technology and brainstorming its use for the classroom. Just as I never saw the use for blogs within a school setting before this class, I am sure that there are many other applications I have overlooked because of narrow-mindedness. I would like to meet with my colleagues and transfer this knowledge to them so we can all work as a team to guide our students with 21st Century Skills.
If I had to set two goals for myself to overcome, they would have to be opportunity and patience. I have so much new knowledge in me that I would like to share with my students and revamp the entire fourth grade curriculum! I know this is unrealistic however, and will need to work on slowly integrating new skills into my classroom (and future classrooms) so as not to overwhelm the students, the administration, and myself. I also know that I will need to carefully integrate the new technology into the existing curriculum, with minor tweaks. The digital immigrants as they are called, will be my last goal. I will need to convince certain staff members that integrating technology into the classroom is neither a negative nor scary prospect. I will try to hold professional development courses for teachers in our district to show them small and simple ways they can utilize the technology that our district has so generously provided us. I am not positive that I will be able to turn the mindset of these digital immigrants, but I am hoping that I can at least show them the light.