Reflection #2

What attitudes, skills, and concepts have you gained from participating in the course so far?

I have really learned a lot from this course.  I think that the interactions with the flipped classroom, horizon reports, NETS, and the group project were beneficial in making me realize how important technology integration is for the future of our students.  My attitude about the use of technology in my classroom has greatly changed.  I used technology to promote interest and motivation and because they need to know how to use it but now I really feel like I owe it to them to teach them about technology and it is a big responsibility that we have.  I have learned about the benefits of voicethread, diigo, google reader, and other great technologies too!

What have you learned in the course that you will not forget tomorrow?

I have learned that there are so many resources out there to inform and educate teachers about the great things they can do with technology in their classrooms.  There are so many blogs about technology with easy, practical ideas that can be implement right away.  The technology standards are also something that I will not forget to soon, or ever!  They were not really ever discussed in our school and I barely knew anything about them and had never even heard of the horizon report as scary as that may be.  I will be using all the references from this class for many years to come not that I feel like I have been properly informed.

How will you apply what you have learned to your teaching and future learning?

I have been thinking about how I can better use my classroom blog to benefit my students and parents.  I have also been contemplating creating a wiki for my students to interact with.  I have so many ideas for this next year that I want to try.  Creating glogs is something that I think would be beneficial for my students as a review for curriculum.  I can use the mobile labs and all the students can do it at once!  I also plan on informing my colleagues about what I have learned.  One of my co teachers is really great about using technology in her classroom.  I need to work more closely with her to learn more and better inform my teaching.  Maybe I can inform her too.