Reflection for 6710 Week 8

Reflections:


This course has helped me develop my technical skills with many different tools. The first assignment to create a blog was my first experience with blogging. Once I read the explanation and instructions from the course Tech Resources tab, I felt confident enough to forge ahead. It really was a simple process of following steps and setting up personal information then I was able to be as creative as I wanted with color, template, etc. Not only did setting up a blog increase my skills, but also posting on the blogs of my colleagues helped as well. Adding RSS feeds leading to their posts from my blog was another technical skill increase, and it made it easy to see the latest communications at one glance. I think the most challenging assignments for me were creating a wiki with my colleagues and creating and posting a podcast to my blog. The wiki was demanding in the sense that communication through technology was a key factor. We also had to learn to edit and add pages which helped me see what my students will encounter as they complete this same assignment in my class. The podcast was fun, but way out of my comfort zone. Not only did I have to learn about and download programs, I also had to record and learn how to add an RSS feed on my blog to the podcast. This course has definitely increased my technical skills.

I will continue to expand my knowledge of technology integration by exploring some of the successful class blogs and wikis suggested in our reading. Another way to help increase student achievement is to blog with colleagues and share activities that apply to my curriculum area and age level. Visiting sites that contain teacher blogs and activities will get me connected to those who are already using technology to increase their students’ achievement. One site I would like to research is Dr. Dede’s Kitzu.com that contains actual activities and exercises to use with students. I think this is what will help me the most.

The first long term goal I have is to create a class web site. This would contain my professional experience as well as classroom and grade level information for parents. A calendar of assignments which includes test and project due dates would be helpful for both the students and parents. After students are used to referring to the web page, I would start adding RSS feeds. These feeds would serve different purposes such as connecting students to class blogs to which they would respond as part of assignments as well as connecting students to a picture or poem or news article that is relevant to our class curriculum. The second long term goal I have is to have my classes create podcasts as part of some projects. They could record original writings or group written scenes from a play. They could even expand their podcast and begin to add video to the verbal recordings. In two years time my goal is to utilize technology for at least 40% of instructional practices to increase student achievement.

Susan Cavenaugh