Reflections
This course has been a huge learning experience for me. I have
learned a lot about computers and technology in the classroom in a very
short time. In terms of personal growth, I can definitely say
there have been huge changes made in the way I see education and in my
thoughts on effective teaching methods. I never before realized
the impact technology can have on the way children, or adults for that
matter, see something: technology and computers can make the
information clearer, more easier to understand, and force the kids to
become more involved in a project. I have come to see that
teaching methods utilizing things like powerpoint or web quests can
help the children to be more interactive, especially those that are
visual learners. I have also learned many technical skills.
I did not even know Nvu or WS_FTP existed prior to taking this
course, and now feel totally comfortable using them. I'm not the
best at using computers, and never thought I would be able to say I can
construct and publish my own web pages with ease. I have also
learned that detail goes a long way - simple things like borders, text
changes or color schemes can go a long way. Now, I know how to
change them and in a matter of seconds, learn how to make the
information more attractive. The one thing I would want to learn
more about would have to do with the digital photo story because I
found that project the most interesting - it would be useful to figure
out how to incorporate or construct more of your own music to fit the
slideshow of your life.
Most importantly, this course taught me how to
incorporate technology into a classroom, even at the elementary level.
Before taking this class, I was under the impression that the
majority of technology could not be applied to younger children because
it would be over their heads - I would have never considered using
things like power points, interactive web quests, or web sites.
Now, I see that any of these technologies and others can be
easily adapted to fit any age range. This, in itself, will
greatly help me when I am a teacher myself. I understand that
these things can be used and have proved helpful to older and younger
children.
The most exciting part of completing these projects
for me was the pride I felt when reviewing each one of them. When
I looked at each finished product, I recalled the steps and hard work
it took to get there. Each project reflects weeks of my time and
the excitements and dissapointments along the way. I felt a huge
sense of accomplishment when looking at the finished web page - all of
my projects over the last three months were displayed in front of me.
Because technology isn't something that always comes easy to me,
I am proud of myself for taking on this challenge. The end result
is better than I ever imagined. Of course, there have been a few
aspects of these projects which proved frustrating for me also.
Learning to use each program was a challenege at first - they are
all different and have "tricks" and "tools" which must be memorized and
put to use almost immediately. I found the publishing process
with WS_FTP difficult too. It was very frustrating that with
every small change, you must publish each page again. It was even
more frustrating that the program signed off automatically every few
minutes. It seemed that every time I went back to publish, I had
to sign on again. Finally, the deadlines were stressful. We
were given a small amount of time for each project, which made it hard
to incorporate every aspect you previously imagined.
For the purposes of this course, I worked
individually. Because so much of this class requires outside
work, I decided not to take part in the group work. I commute to
Cortland and am only on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My
schedule is not convenient enough in order to get together with 3-4
other people outside of class numerous times a week. Otherwise, I
would have enjoyed the group work - I like working with others and
bouncing ideas off other people. As the old saying goes, "two
heads are better than one." However, I did not mind working
individually either. I liked that the ideas were my own and the
finished products reflected my hard work. I think both ways would
be beneficial to learning. I do not feel that I missed out on any
part of this course by not participating in group work.
Working in small groups can be very powerful, more
so for younger children than college students. I think it is very
important to realize that children need to learn cooperation and group
work early on. This way, they will be more accepting of the views
of others or ideas that do not go along with their own. While we
were able to choose our own groups in this class, elementary students
would probably abuse such a privilege. To ensure that there is
less goofing off and more work getting done, groups can be assigned by
counting off by 3's or 4's or even previously assigned groups decided
by the teacher - this should be based upon the teacher's observatioins
of who works well together, who needs extra help, etc. Grades in
groups should be given based on the finished product AND the group's
ability to work well together. Having the group fill out
questionaries with statements like "my group and I worked well
together" or "I put in my share of ideas and work" and asking them to
"grade" themselves on a scale from 1-5 can help the teacher see more of
what is going on amongst the group members. Using these
questionaires as a guide, each student in the group should be given one
grade.
While I don't quite know what my vision for
educational technology is at this point, I have learned a lot and
formed my own opinions about what is important in elementary education.
I definitely plan to include power points in my lessons: it
is important for visual learners to see what is in front of them.
Also, I liked that this class incorporated music. With
younger children, this can help them stay on task because it will grab
their attention from the beginning. I also plan to include web
quests in my lessons, whether as review or as an initial introduction
of a topic - in both ways, it will be useful for the students.
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