Reflections
on EDU 314: Technology in the Classroom!
At the beginning of this class I
was fairly comfortable with the computer in terms of using the internet
and programs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point, Micrsoft
Publisher, other than that i was pretty much inexperienced with the
many other forms of technology that were available to me. Throughout
this class I learned about so many new programs, that I had never had
any experience with such as: Netscape Composer, ws_ftp, Photostory, and
a few others. While I was learning about these programs there were many
times throughout the semester that I was very frustrated with the
class, but I worked through those frustrations and have grown so much
in the process! I learned many new technical skill involving programs
that I had never had experience with and I even learned new skills in
programs that I thought I had already mastered. I learned many of my
new skills through experimenting on my own. I feel that the many new
skills that this class helped me to master will be of great assistance
to me in my future as a teacher.
I feel that this class is very important for
prospective teachers to take and should even be a requirement for
teachers that have been teaching for many years now. I believe this
because technology is such a major part of our lives, it touches us in
millions of ways ever day! Technology is an important part of most jobs
and is being used more and more in school as time goes on and
technology use is only going to continue to impact us more and more as
time goes on. It is because of this that students need to know how to
work with technology. Technology can be introduced to students in many
different ways: students can go into a program on their own and just
experiment to see what they can do, or you can give the students a
specific lesson on different skills dealing with technology. However,
through this course I have come to find out that a combination of both
these approaches is often needed for one to master the program because
sometimes you need to just figure it out on your own and other times
you need to visually see someone do it and then you understand.
As I mentioned above throughout this course I
learned many new things, but the one thing that I found most enjoyable
and easier than I had ever imagined was the making of my own website!
If you had asked me before this class if I knew how to make a website
or if I could ever see myself being able to make one the answer would
definatly have been no way , not in a million years! This class not
only taught me how to make my own website, but it also showed me that I
should never be intimidated by technology before I have had a chance to
experience it because although it might seem impossible to begin with
it is often not! I think it is really cool that I now can say that I
have my own personal website and that I now possess the skills needed
to use this technology in my future endeavors. For example, I could use
the skill of creating a website to create a website for my class where
I could display all of my students work for their friends and family to
see whenever they wanted. I could also teach my students how to create
a website all about them as a way of building a community within my
classroom!
Another exciting experience that I had during this
class was the chance to work with and become familiar with the program
of photostory. Before this class I never knew that such a wonderful
program existed! This program allowed me to make a photostory detailing
my nephew's life from birth up until now that he is 2 years old. I will
definatly use this program in my future as a teacher. One way that this
could be used in the classroom by the teacher is to introduce yourself
to the students and have them see that you are a person with a life
outside of the classroom, which is contrary to the belief of many
students! You could also use this as a way to have your students
introduce themselves to each other and to you as a way of building a
classroom community.
During this class there were many times when we had
to work in groups for projects such as making a school website or doing
a webquest on the rainforest. In my opinion it was very hard
completeing projects for this class in a group setting, I would much
rather have worked on my own for these projects. The reason I am saying
this is because it was really difficult some times to get the projects
together when different parts were done by different people in the
group and then once we did finally get the project put together, there
was still the challenge of getting the completed project onto the thumb
drive of each of the group members. This was difficult at times because
not only did the finished project need to be saved on each group
member's thumb drive, but also every little detail such as pictures and
other things that went into the actual making of the project! This was
frustrating because many times you would think that you have everything
you need uploaded and then you upload it and go online to see it and
random pictures wont show up and to me this was very frustrating!
However, as time went on I worked through these frustrations and came
to better understand how to avoid some of these frustrations and now I
have learned so much as a result of over coming these many
frustrations.
Also there were many situations durng this class
where we were asked to work alone to complete projects such as building
our own photostory or making a power point presentation. To make the
photostory I had to go through all my photos on my computer and put
them in time order so that I could show my nephew's life from birth up
until now. The actual process of making the photo story was very easy
and painless. However, when it came to finalizing it and uploading it
on to the web I became extremely frustrated because there were all
sorts of technological issues that I experienced and then on top of
that I ran into the problem of not having enough space on the web to
upload my photostory, but once again I overcame these frustration and
completed the photostory project, which is definatly my favorite thing
we did all year! After I completed it and watched it I had tears in my
eyes because it made me realize how fast my nephew is growing up and
how much of an impact I have had on his life! It also made me realize
that as a teacher I will be greatly impacting the lives of my students
and I even had the thought of a year ending project for my students to
make a photo story of their development throughout the year, because
not only would it be a rewarding experience for them to see how much
they have changed, but it would also show me how I have impacted their
lives and in turn how they have impacted me!
When it comes to whether or not group work or
individual work is best I believe that a combination of both within the
classroom is the best approach. For example, working in a group can be
powerful because you can fully take advantage of the many different
strengths of each group member, in other words if one person is not
good at something another group member may be and the weaker group
member may be able to learn from this student! However, there is also
power in having students work on their own. For example, it is key that
you not always have students working in groups because students need to
be able to work on their own and learn things on their own. If a
students is always working in a group where they don't have to
contribute much, they might not learn the skills of whatever they are
doing and therefore will not be able to do whatever the group is doing
on their own. However, this can be avoided by having the students each
take on different roles in group work and having them change roles and
experience all the roles in different projects.
Overall this class was very useful and rewarding for
me. I learned many different skills and I am now much comfortable with
using many different aspects of technology. In my future I see myself
as a teacher who has a classroom environment where technology is
completely integrated and plays a major role in my instruction. I feel
that technology is a great tool for enhancing student learning and
helping them to express themselves creatively in all that they do!