Week 5 Reflection
I envisioned this course being a course that I would learn the technology standards for the state, learn different ways to incorporate technology in classroom instruction, and actually use technology in various ways that could be applied in an educational setting. These outcomes were achieved; however the class provided a vast amount of knowledge in regards to internet safety, cyber ethics, legal issues and the assessment tools used to measure the districts progress in preparing our students to meet the goals of the Long Range Plan for Technology. The information attained on cyber ethics and copyright laws were extremely valuable to me as a teacher leader. This is information that definitely should be shared with staff members. Also, cyber ethics should be incorporated into the school day so that our students will know how to be safe as they work online. I thought that we would have had to complete more tasks in relation to the development of our own professional proficiency utilizing technology such as creating a wiki, online chat rooms etc.
Everything I learned is relevant to the work of a school in order to prepare for the 21st century learner. Therefore, we began by accessing the data, determining the needs and developing an action plan. Through this process we used muti-media to create a way to inform the audience and share our thoughts with our colleagues. Specifically, as a school leader I feel like the action plan was a vehicle that truly could be used at my school to cast the vision for technology and facilitate the process of not only engaging the 21st century student but teaching them the skills that will prove to be advantageous to any career that they pursue. This was the first time that I received information on the relevance of the STaR chart and the spiraling technology curriculum. Although most schools promote technology it is not specific or at least not presented based on the data and the standards set by the state. I was able to analyze the data for my specific school and realize that the greatest need that we have right now is educating our staff members in the use of technology so that they feel comfortable enough to utilize technology for classroom instruction. I also learned that we need to provide more hands- on experiences for our students so that they can be proficient in their technological skills. I learned how to create a blog, how to respond to a blog and most importantly various ways that blogs can be used to provide educational value for students.
Some ways that blogs can be used across content areas include providing conversation in regards to a topic of interest, gaining insight from students who may not feel comfortable responding in the traditional classroom setting, and providing creative ways for students to not be limited to the peers in their individual class. However, the challenge is finding ways to ensure the safety of all students participating. The question becomes how do you control the content of what is being said in the blog and ensure that students do not post information that is hurtful, offensive or lacks relevance to the proposed topic. Blogging can be a valuable tool as school stakeholders as well as it provides people the opportunity to access information pretty much from anywhere and anytime. I proposed in my action plan to use this concept as a vehicle to set up professional development for technology training for teachers. This would make it possible to provide flexible options geared towards the needs of the teacher. Technology is truly an area where people express different levels of expertise and would be more likely to participate if the information was based on a topic of interest.
An outcome that I think that I need to continue to learn is some of the technological terminology as well as proficiency in using all the technological resources that are available such as document cameras, smart boards, creating wiki’s etc. Since this was an online course there was no access to a lot of hands on experiences with technology which this class has inspired me to want to learn. I also need to practice working with blogs more. I was successful in creating my blog as the outlined steps were excellent, but I would like to be able to do it again without following the steps one by one.
Overall, this was an excellent class that peaked my interest for utilizing technology in the classroom as well as actually utilizing the action plan that I created to cast the vision for technology at my school. It’s really sad to be in a school that has the infrastructure to support what it entails to be target tech but is not utilizing the resources to reach the needs of the 21st century learner. It is imperative to not just provide the resources but to actually provide the training needed to facilitate the use of the resources. Lastly, and most importantly the most valuable thing that I learned as an aspiring administrator is to differentiate professional development for teachers the way that we do for our students. This style of professional development geared towards the needs and interest of the teachers followed up by continuous monitoring and evaluation is the step in living out the expectations for teaching the digital natives.
I envisioned this course being a course that I would learn the technology standards for the state, learn different ways to incorporate technology in classroom instruction, and actually use technology in various ways that could be applied in an educational setting. These outcomes were achieved; however the class provided a vast amount of knowledge in regards to internet safety, cyber ethics, legal issues and the assessment tools used to measure the districts progress in preparing our students to meet the goals of the Long Range Plan for Technology. The information attained on cyber ethics and copyright laws were extremely valuable to me as a teacher leader. This is information that definitely should be shared with staff members. Also, cyber ethics should be incorporated into the school day so that our students will know how to be safe as they work online. I thought that we would have had to complete more tasks in relation to the development of our own professional proficiency utilizing technology such as creating a wiki, online chat rooms etc.
Everything I learned is relevant to the work of a school in order to prepare for the 21st century learner. Therefore, we began by accessing the data, determining the needs and developing an action plan. Through this process we used muti-media to create a way to inform the audience and share our thoughts with our colleagues. Specifically, as a school leader I feel like the action plan was a vehicle that truly could be used at my school to cast the vision for technology and facilitate the process of not only engaging the 21st century student but teaching them the skills that will prove to be advantageous to any career that they pursue. This was the first time that I received information on the relevance of the STaR chart and the spiraling technology curriculum. Although most schools promote technology it is not specific or at least not presented based on the data and the standards set by the state. I was able to analyze the data for my specific school and realize that the greatest need that we have right now is educating our staff members in the use of technology so that they feel comfortable enough to utilize technology for classroom instruction. I also learned that we need to provide more hands- on experiences for our students so that they can be proficient in their technological skills. I learned how to create a blog, how to respond to a blog and most importantly various ways that blogs can be used to provide educational value for students.
Some ways that blogs can be used across content areas include providing conversation in regards to a topic of interest, gaining insight from students who may not feel comfortable responding in the traditional classroom setting, and providing creative ways for students to not be limited to the peers in their individual class. However, the challenge is finding ways to ensure the safety of all students participating. The question becomes how do you control the content of what is being said in the blog and ensure that students do not post information that is hurtful, offensive or lacks relevance to the proposed topic. Blogging can be a valuable tool as school stakeholders as well as it provides people the opportunity to access information pretty much from anywhere and anytime. I proposed in my action plan to use this concept as a vehicle to set up professional development for technology training for teachers. This would make it possible to provide flexible options geared towards the needs of the teacher. Technology is truly an area where people express different levels of expertise and would be more likely to participate if the information was based on a topic of interest.
An outcome that I think that I need to continue to learn is some of the technological terminology as well as proficiency in using all the technological resources that are available such as document cameras, smart boards, creating wiki’s etc. Since this was an online course there was no access to a lot of hands on experiences with technology which this class has inspired me to want to learn. I also need to practice working with blogs more. I was successful in creating my blog as the outlined steps were excellent, but I would like to be able to do it again without following the steps one by one.
Overall, this was an excellent class that peaked my interest for utilizing technology in the classroom as well as actually utilizing the action plan that I created to cast the vision for technology at my school. It’s really sad to be in a school that has the infrastructure to support what it entails to be target tech but is not utilizing the resources to reach the needs of the 21st century learner. It is imperative to not just provide the resources but to actually provide the training needed to facilitate the use of the resources. Lastly, and most importantly the most valuable thing that I learned as an aspiring administrator is to differentiate professional development for teachers the way that we do for our students. This style of professional development geared towards the needs and interest of the teachers followed up by continuous monitoring and evaluation is the step in living out the expectations for teaching the digital natives.
