Final Reflection

Through this Master's course Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society, I have had to learn and integrate new technology within my classroom. This course introduced me to Wiki, Podcasting, blogging and lots of other technology that I can use to make my classroom a 21st Century classroom. I was impressed how easy and effective using these different types of technology and how each one would benefit my classroom. Now in my classroom, I am looking for different ways of integrating technology because this course has giving me the confidence and motivation to look for and how to effectively use technology to help increase student's 21st Century skills and acquisition of new technology.
Increasing student's achievement is one of the main priorities that I have in my classroom. If I am able to increase the use of technology and help students achieve in my classroom, I feel that I am doing the right thing. One way that I can expand my knowledge of technology is try creating a Wiki page for my US History class with the information they will need for their End of Course Test and graduation tests in Georgia. By creating this Wiki page, the students will be developing and increase their 21st Century skills Dr. David Thornburg mentioned. Students will become critical thinkers and problem solvers because they will have to figure out what is important to put on the Wiki page and how to arrange the page for higher achievement. The students will also become good with collaborating with others because the students will work in groups and assign different jobs for the different members to create one final project. Some students, through this Wiki project will become leaders and will be able to guide group members in a efficient direction to complete the Wiki page in a timely manner. With these skills, students will be gaining important skills needed for the workplace in the 21st Century.
Goal setting is important in education because educators need directions and a lighted tunnel to get throw in today's education world. With so many teaching aids that deals with technology out there available to teachers, it is almost impossible for teachers not to use technology in the classroom. One long term goal that I am setting is creating a blog for my classes and for students and parents to access at home. By creating this blog, it will increase my availability to my students outside of school. To help with student achievement, I need to be available to my students and I feel this will accomplish that. First, I would need to do a survey to see if my students will have access to computers. Through this blog, I would be able to link worksheets, assignments, and notes for when they are out or if they loose their paper work. I feel this would help streamline my classroom because students would have access to the class at home and at school. Also, by creating this blog, my students and parents could post questions about homework, classwork and class test. I believe by having this goal will increase my student's achievement by giving them an opportunity to be in constant communication. The second long-term goal is developing a wiki page with literary terms for my English Language Arts classes. Students see literary terms throughout high school and into college so it is important that they learn and know them. By creating a Wiki, students will be able to integrate other media examples whether through song or movies to define and illustrate the literary term. If students can visually see the word or hear the word and its definition it will increase student's achievement. Student will be actively learning the literary terms by looking for examples and collaborating with other students finding examples and discussing the meaning of each word. I feel that with so much relying on standardized testing, creating this Wiki page over literary terms will help student with understanding the word and be able to find examples for effectively. My two long-term goals are creating a blog page for my classes and creating a project where students are creating a Wiki page with all literary terms found on standardized testing. I plan accomplishing these goals by slowly integrating new technology from this course.

Week 5 Podcast

I interviewed 3 of my family members concerning the usage of technology in their daily lives. I found out that technology is influencing lives for 2nd grade all the way to high school. My questions ranged from the amount of time spent using technology for example cell phones, IPODs or MP3 players, gaming devices and the use of technology the school setting. Click on Week 5 to listen to podcast.