This week I reflect on the journey I have taken over the past seven weeks. I can honestly say that this class has been my favorite so far in the program because I have learned about new technology and then been able to use it in my classroom immediately. The whole purpose of choosing this Master’s program was the hope that it would have practical and real-world applications; now I can say that it has! With regard to my personal theory of learning that I developed in Week 1 I still believe that Piaget and Garder influence my current instructional practice. Dr. Wolfe (Laureate Education Inc., 2011) stated that every child’s brain is different; therefore, every child learns in a different way. This class has helped me realize that technology can be used as both an instructional and learning tool; this allows for more differentiation. Jean Piaget believed that “a child acquires knowledge by interacting with the world and constantly changing and reorganizing their own knowledge. [He] stressed that learning occurs when children engage with peers and adults in a social setting (Morrow & Dougherty, 2011).” In addition, Howard Gardner believes that every child has a unique intelligence or way of learning (Orey, 2001). I use peer tutoring, cooperative learning and always activate my students’ schema before beginning a lesson. With the help of this course I know can see the benefit of incorporating technology into my theory of learning. I have gained a deeper understanding of how students learn in the 21st century classroom; and even found new ways to teach them using educational technologies!
I have already made adjustments to my instructional practice regarding technology integration as a result of the learning in this course because I now realize how powerful of a learning tool the Smart Board can be. I used to use the board primarily as an instructional tool; teaching my students the same things as before but with a visual aide. Now I find interactive ways to teach the same curriculum that get my students up off the floor and touching the screen.The two technology tools I would like to use with my students more often are virtual field trips and VoiceThreads. The virtual field trip will support and enhance my students’ learning by allowing them to experience the content through images. As Dr. Orey stated often the more that I can incorporate images with a lesson the more likely a student is to recall that information later. Additionally, I will use VoiceThread more often because of the connection I can make between home and school. Last week I created a thread and shared it with the families of my students and received an abundance of positive feedback about being included in the learning process.
The two long-term goals I would like to make to my instructional practice regarding technology integration are to incorporate more technology into my everyday lessons and stay abreast of new technology as it is introduced into our culture. I plan on doing this by reading scholarly articles that explore new learning tools and practicing them in my classroom. Another overall goal I have is to find a successful way to teach my colleagues about what I have learned in this course/masters program. I plan on offering a seminar after school to share my ideas and hopefully allow them to teach me what technology tools they are already using. I think this will result in a new networking of ideas among the teachers and staff in my building.
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