This course has taught me a great deal of information in
seven short weeks. I never thought I
myself would have my own blog page, participate in a wiki page, and create a
podcast. As a teacher I have heard of
podcast and wiki pages but never really knew the true impact that they could
have in education. After taking this
course it has become apparent to me that these resources can be extremely
beneficial to students in my classroom.
I personal blog on a daily basis and never realized it before from
social media sites to visiting different websites that you can post a blog
response to. I never thought about
introducing these ideas into my classroom before taking this course. I have discovered many powerful ways in which
these resources can help educate and cause my students to analyze and
critically thinking. In addition, these
are different types of technologies that they are exposed to on a daily
basis. They are also ways to make
education fun and appealing for students by using tools that interest
them.
In addition, to the technology I used in this class I also
gained a better perspective of the 21st century standards. I have heard about the 21st century standards
however, I myself did not know about them.
This course has forced me to have better understanding of what these
standards are. In addition, it has
caused me to want to change my teaching strategies. It is no longer important for the educator to
know all the information in the classroom but to act as a facilitator help
bridge the gap of knowledge together. As
educators our job is to prepare our students for their future workplace even if
their future jobs have not been created yet.
In order to prepare our students we need them to be able to collaborate,
problem solve, and be creative with their ideas (Partnership, n.d.). These are ideas that without this class I
would have never considered their importance.
This cause has made me realize several reason why it is
important for classrooms to no longer be teacher centered but rather student
centered instead. It is apparent that
when students are able to control their own questions and discoveries in
education it is more meaningful to them.
In todays world with the technology available to students they are able
to discover and find out anything they are interested in. They no longer need a teacher to stand in
from of them and lecture what they should know.
Where as, in a student centered environment students are able to control
the knowledge they learn and most analyze like the information to learn out to
apply it. As a teacher I want students
to learn in my class and not dread having to learn. I think in order to make sure that children
are understand ideas and concepts you must allow for students to research and
discover information that interests then as well. This class has caused me to want to expand
on these methods of teaching. I want my
students to be able to problem solve, critically think, express their
creativity, and collaborate with others. I want to introduce more project based
learning in which students are able to direct the way in which they are going
to learn. I want students to work in
small groups and where they will have to take a concept and create a project on
in that elaborates on many different aspects on it. I want my students to be able to teach other
classmates through their research. I
want to incorporate technology into my lessons to help students learn and
elaborate on their idea. However, these
are ideas I had several weeks ago but never knew where to begin. After, exposing myself to several different
types of available resources I can no introduce them to my classroom. I know I am not an expert in blogging,
podcasts, or wiki spaces but you have to start somewhere. In order to become better acquainted and more
familiar using I will have to begin somewhere.
In the next few weeks I plan to introduce these ideas to my class and begin
a new journey of teachers I never thought I would use.
As an educator the goals I set for myself that I would like
to achieve is to incorporate more 21st century standards into my lessons and
utilizing more digital technology use for students. I know that it will take some time to direct
my teachings from teacher centered to student centered but I plan to make small
changes. I plan to increase problem
solving and critical thinking skills within my classroom. I also plan to incorporate more collaborative
group based projects in my class. In
order to introduce more digital technology next year I plan to start a blog
that students will answer discussions questions on. This will allow my students an opportunity to
critically thinking around from the classroom.
I reviewed my checklist from week 1 and I do not feel that my answers
have changed yet. Although I have a
better understanding of some of the technologies I do not feel completely
comfortable yet. I think it is going to
take time and practice.
References:
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). Parntership
for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/
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