Baby Steps?

Prior to the start of this course, I had taken two other technology courses. I had learned about the NETs standards, app evaluation, and many digital storytelling tools. At work, I had become familiar with iPads, SmartBoards, and Moodle. I felt that I could “catch on” to technology fairly easily. However, technology never seemed to work for me and as soon as something goes wrong, I can't fix it. I always have IT requests!

This course appealed to me right away after I read the course description. I wanted to learn how to use technology for me and for my students. I wanted to learn about new tools and how to use existing tools. The thought of integrating technology with content was overwhelming since I teach five subjects. How was I supposed to teach students content and technology skills at the same time? I also wanted to find a way to evaluate what resources are good and would be helpful to me as I plan and teach my students. 

I have learned so much throughout this course. I learned some things that I expected to learn and many that I did not expect. I feel much more confident in teaching digital citizenship now that I know exactly what it is and why it is so important. I know the parts that make up a blog, how to create one, and how to use them to interact with colleagues from all over the world. I have learned what a Personal Learning Network is, how to set one up, and why it is so crucial to do so. I found out what social bookmarking is and learned how to use it. I learned about wiki's, webinars, and more about Google docs. I learned a variety of ways to find new information, make it come straight to me, and how to organize it. I feel that I really have come a long way with technology during this course. I've learned to just try things and play around with new tools. I have also gotten a bit better at asking for help and looking for help online, I still have a way to go there though! 

One of the biggest things that I am planning to put into use from this class is a personal learning network. As I've said before, I think that most of this work will have to wait until the summer. I can barely seem to keep up with anything this year with Common Core and Standards Based Grading! During a vacation though, I will definitely be adding to Feedly and Diigo, finding more blogs to follow, and watching more webinars! For this school year, since I saw the video near the beginning of this course, I wanted to use a wiki for social studies notes in my class. I still hope to implement this as soon as I can this year, but my students still do not have Google accounts so I am at a standstill. Hopefully next year, I will be able to use a wiki from much earlier in the year. I feel much more confident now with integrating technology use as I teach content areas. I feel that I will be able to use technology tools in many more assessments and projects this year. I also think that I will be able to teach my students research skills in a much more fun way, by using social bookmarking. Next year, I also plan to have a much better introduction early in the year to digital citizenship, followed by more in depth lessons throughout the year. I learned some about flipping classrooms, but I would need more examples and personal how-to stories before I would feel comfortable trying to start to flip my classroom. There are also two things that I did not necessarily not learn during this course, but that I realized. I realized that I did not need to learn about more tools to use in my classroom. Instead, I should focus on quickly learning about a few and then picking one to use with my students. In other words, I need to focus on evaluating a few and then picking one, instead of just having a huge pool of resources. Also, I realized that there is still a lot of incredible technology out there that I do not have access to. I remember the school where I student taught received six nooks per classroom as part of a grant that a teacher wrote. I really think that I should look into grant writing, though of course I have no idea when I'd have time for that!

I think that I had a good idea of technology integration at the start of this course, but I know that I have a much better understanding of it now. Integrating technology means teaching students digital citizenship. It means teaching content standards while incorporating digital skills that they will need in their futures. Educators need to be teaching students digital skills that are transferable across different tools and programs. Our students are digital natives and most of them will be able to transfer these skills. This is what technology integration is no: It is not teaching students to use only one tool or program. It is not forcing students and their families to provide technology for students. It is not enabling students to become reliant on technology. Technology integration should be helping students to be prepared for their lives in the 21^st century. It should be helping students to be digitally responsible and use their own brains for problem solving. And it should be using technology to assist students in learning content standards.

So all in all, I have learned a lot in this class. I have a lot of tools and ideas to bring with me to my classroom. But, I also know that I have a lot of work to do. I understand now that I have to educate my students to be digitally aware and knowledgeable. To do this, I have to keep up as well. It is going to take a lot of work for me to come up with a system to set up a good PLN and keep up with it. I'm hoping that taking slow baby steps as time allows will be better than taking no steps at all!