EDTC 614 Reflection

My definition of technology integration at the beginning of this class was meaningfully incorporating different technologies into the classroom to create greater student understanding of desired learning objectives. I am adding that knowing how to work with technology is such a vital skill. However, we don’t have time to teach our students technology for the sake of technology, so we need to seamlessly weave it into our curriculum. Technology cannot be an afterthought in our lessons. We need to have it in mind every step of the way.

I think that my definition itself has not changed, but my understanding of how to implement it has.  I feel as though I started with an understanding of technology integration that was an ideal, off in the distance, kind of idea. Now I feel much more prepared to actually make it happen!

Before EDTC 600 I did not even know there were so many different technology standards out there. My knowledge of those has grown exponentially through the months. I now know that these technology standards are not trying to place one more responsibility on me. They are trying to make my life easier and make my students learn better with more resources and tools at their disposal.

Also, my knowledge of technology in general has grown. It is impossible for anyone to know about every available classroom technology resource. There are new ones being developed every day. I love being able to keep learning and researching and finding out the latest tools in instructional technology. Throughout this class I have also found many wonderful resources so that I can stay a life long learner. I came across several places that offer free webinars and free teacher resources online. I will definitely be returning to those bookmarked pages in the future.

When I am planning lessons now, it is now easier for me to look at them through a technology lens. I have stumbled upon so many wonderful technology integration ideas in the past eight weeks. There are technologies that I never would have thought to use. Or more often the case: technologies I never would have thought to use a certain way. Technology itself is so versatile and dynamic. For example, before I would have been content doing a KWL on a piece of chart paper before I start a new unit. Now, I could create a word cloud with my students’ background knowledge, I could have them create a graphic organizer on Webspiration with their background knowledge, or I could have them take a survey using clickers.

I enjoyed having this class to push me to reevaluate some of my own already existing lessons to see where I could spiff them up with a little technology here and there. That was so much more meaningful than having to create new lessons that I will never teach. The other teachers on my grade level team are starting to get overwhelmed with all the new technology ideas I am bringing to them. But as long as I am there to lead the way they are definitely following along and our third graders are greatly benefiting from our technology integration. This has helped my team and me collaborate even more than we did previously. Collaboration is so integral to good teaching. I am just thankful to be learning all of this valuable information in my masters program and I am also thankful to have great teammates to share all my newfound knowledge with.

I have loved getting to interview so many different teachers for the field experiences in this class. My motto is that there is no stealing in the teaching profession, only borrowing. Two heads are always better than one. Collaborating with other teachers and hearing their opinions and experiences with technology has been truly enlightening. I have learned SO much about school budgets and virtual purchasing. That is one topic I had not known much about previously. And charter schools have such different budgets than public schools. It is an interesting comparison.

Through the field experiences I came to understand that most teachers, regardless of what generation they fall into, want to learn more about technology in the classroom. Where we all fall short is having the time or training to progress as far as we would like. The question is what do we do about it. This is where I found the big generational gap. The Generation Y teachers often pursue the technology more on their own time than older generations of teachers. So it isn’t a lack of desire to learn technology: it is a lack of time and motivation. There were many other stigmas about generational technology issues that I have found to be false. For example, all older teachers don’t want anything to do with technology. Some of them do, but placing ultimate values on anything, like saying ALL Baby Boomers hate technology, is a tricky business. I was really encouraged by everyone’s enthusiasm towards technology integration in the classroom.