Week 5 Part 3: Course Reflections

As a new teacher, finding ways to integrate technology in the curriculum was tough, and this is the reason why I enrolled in this Master’s program. The outcomes that I envisioned for this course were to complete all assignments, learn about web tools, and learn new ways to implement technology in the curriculum. I was able to complete all assignments on time. In addition, I have grown tremendously from this course, because when I started I didn’t have an idea what web tools were and how to implement them into the curriculum. At the end of this course, I now know what web tools are and how to implement them into my lessons. This course did a great job introducing and explaining many different kinds of web tools. I am excited about my new profound knowledge and experience with web tools, and I cannot wait to share my new ideas with other teachers.

Being a fourth grade teacher, every web tool that was presented in this course was relevant. Most of the web tools that were presented in this course I had never used or heard about before. The wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, animoto, and Wordle were all new to me. I also learned the difference between a blog and a wiki. Since I started this course, I have talked to my principal about setting up a blog for my fourth grade students on my blackboard site. She and I are very excited about implementing this idea in my lessons. Every week I will ask a critical-thinking question in relation to the topic that we are covering that week and they will have until Friday to answer the question. I will have it set up so that I will be able to accept or decline the answers. This will be a learning experience not only for my students, but for me as well.

Even though I completed all of my assignments, I still need to work on my writing and references. I believe that with time and practice my writing and ability to cite references correctly will get better. I haven’t written a research paper in while, so I need to learn how to cite in APA style again. I also had trouble following the different documents in Epic. For example, the course overview in the announcement section, the course overview that was posted in assignments, and the to-do-list all had different information. This course was very overwhelming because it was a lot of work and research, so I struggled to find out what exactly I had to complete for each week’s assignment. Epic could be a great system, but they must find a way to present information without it being scattered throughout the system. This was my first course, so by next course I hope maneuvering and finding information will become easier.

I was able to turn in all my assignments, but I did run into a few problems. The first time I tried to submit an assignment on Epic was tragic. I uploaded my assignment from my jump drive and then hit the submit button. From there I received an error notice saying that my assignment was not submitted. I began to freak out because the assignment was due that day. Something told me to hit the refresh button and when I did the page reloaded and I receive the message that said assignment submitted. Now, every time I submit an assignment I must refresh the page to allow my assignment to be submitted. I was so grateful to have a wonderful Instructional Associate and group members. They were all very nice and answered my questions to the best of their abilities and I really appreciated it.  Overall, I believe that this course wouldn’t have been so overwhelming if the information wouldn’t have been scattered throughout the Epic system.

During these past five weeks, I have learned about different ways that I can implement technology in my lessons.  I also learned that I am not as “Tech Savvy” as I thought I was.  I have come to a turning point in my life where I just don’t want to be a good teacher but, a great teacher.  I realize in order to become that great teacher, I must teach my students the basic technological skills so that they can have an equal opportunity to succeed in this digital world. Some say implementing technology in younger grades is a waste of time but from this course I have learned that it is never too early to introduce basic technology skills to students.  I have also learned a lot about myself from this course. I learned that when I am put to a test I will always pass because I believe in myself. Plenty of nights I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish the assignments but in the end I pushed myself and I was able to complete all of the assignments. I can now say that I am a better and stronger person.  I always have considered myself a leader, but now I want to be the best leader and teacher.  I feel that this program will help me achieve these goals.

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National Educational Technology Plan

In the National Educational Technology plan, it states that technology is at the core virtually everywhere of our daily life and work and as educators must provide engaging lessons and powerful learning experiences. Technology-based learning is vital in improving student learning.  Both of these statements are so true because everywhere you look children are engaged in technology in their everyday lives, and we must find ways to engage children with technology in our classrooms so that they will be ready for their futures. Technology will also help us to execute collaborative teaching strategies to enhance student learning. Technology will not only help us to collaborate and work together, but it will also help children to globally interact with one another. The challenge educators will face is how to incorporate technology to create engaging and personalized lessons to mimic their daily lives and the reality of their future. This plan also states that teachers and students should engage in large and small group learning environments depending on the child’s needs and interest. I agree with this part of the plan because we as educators have to be able to know when to differentiate instruction depending on the skill you are teaching. So, I try to incorporate meaningful activities as much as I can in my classroom, because not all children have the same learning styles.  One goal that stood out to me was, “All learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and out of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society”, which just summarized what I stated earlier. To meet this goal, they recommend each state to revise and implement standards and learning objectives using technology to reflect the21st century learners.  The plan also states that teachers and students will be given assessments and immediately feedback to help improve the student’s achievements. The plan goes on to say that all students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it. This means that they will have the access to wireless connectivity both in and out of school. In conclusion, The National Educational Technology Plan is saying that we as educators need to incorporate technology and more meaningful activities in our classrooms so that we will receive more productive results from our students.

U.S. Department of Education. (2010). Transforming American Education Learning Powered By

    Technology. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/netp2010.pdf.

District Technology Plan

The district plan I will summarize is Calcasieu Parish…

 Calcasieu parish is one of the pioneers in integrating technology in the state. They are currently in the process of addressing the four steps which are Strengthen Leadership, Improve Teacher Training, Support E-Learning and Virtual Schools, and Provide Improved Access and Technology Usage to integrate technology in the classroom. Instep one, leadership category, the plan states that all leaders must support and monitor effective use of instructional technology. In step two, improve teacher training, the plan states that teachers should attend professional development to ensure effective use of technology in the classroom. CPSS offers professional development either face to face or online learning. Step three, support E-Learning and virtual schools, the plan states that for five years the district has grown in online instruction.  CPSS has one full-time E-learning facilitator. They also provide after hours access to technology resources. The last step, Provide Improved Access and Technology Usage to integrate technology in the classroom, states that most of the campuses have access to high-speed, high capacity hardware, software, and broadband communications.

The district and E-Rate provides funds to provide high-speed broadband connections to every classroom. The current ratio in the district student to internet computer is 3.5:1. Now, tech support is able to remotely control most of the computers in the district. The district plan also states that 50 percent of teachers use blackboard to support classroom instruction at home. There were thirteen schools in the district that reported that technology integration is at “Advanced Tech” or higher. At the end of the school year, teachers and students are given a survey to complete on the use of technological skills. The survey reveals that 26.1% of teachers are proficient in all the NETS Standards, 47.4% of the administrators are proficient in all the NETS Standards, 3.3% of 4th grade students are proficient in all the NETS Standards, and 15.10% of 8th graders are proficient in all the NETS Standards.

I believe that most teachers would like to integrate the curriculum, but they have a lack of support from other teachers and administrators. They are tired of trying new ways of incorporating technology in their lessons and failing. This is when the district should step up and provide the right professional development opportunities. After reading the district’s technology plan I do believe that they are on the right path for a brighter future in technology for our children. 

 Calcasieu Parish Technology Plan. (2007). Retrieved from    

            http://www.cpsb.org/system/policies/techplan.pdf.

Web Conference, Week 2

I attended the web conference on Tuesday August 30, 2011. I was really excited to finally meet some of my classmates, but when I logged on my excitement went away and frustration sat in. I realized that I couldn’t understand the professor. She was very nice and apologized about the situation and began to type everything for the ones that couldn’t understand her. On this web conference we discussed the admission plan and policy and we learned that if we had a 3.0 or higher we didn’t have to take the GRE exam. We also discussed week 1 and week 2 assignments, she told us that we needed to purchase TK20, and she also talked about our internship and told us that it was time to choose our site mentor. We also found out that after we are finished with this program we can take the principal certification and become a certified principal in the state of Texas. I also found out that I wasn’t the only person from Lake Charles! I thought this conference was overall a great learning experience.

Technology Assessment

The world is changing everyday and as educators, we need to get with the program! Technology is everywhere and we need to start teaching our children the value of using it because they will need technological skills in the future. So, I think that it is important and beneficial to assess an educator’s technology leadership knowledge and skills as well as assessing the knowledge and skill of student technology skill levels. If we don’t assess both how will we know if teachers are doing their jobs? There are several pros and cons to assessing an educator’s technology skill level, but I will only discus a few.

One pro of assessing educators on their technology skills is that they will be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. When teachers receive this information they will be able to work on the areas that they need to improve. For example, the first week of class we had to complete a lot of assessments and as a result of the assessments I found out that my weakness was using web 2.0 tools and one of my strengths was incorporating technology in my lessons. So, I now know that I need to work on using web 2.0 tools in my classroom. Another pro of assessing educators’ technology skills is that the district will be able to provide better professional development. The district will be able to pin-point the weaknesses of most of the educators and provide them with professional development on those topics. For example, if most educators need help using web 2.0 tools in their classrooms it would be wise for the district to plan a professional development on that topic.

I also feel that there are some cons in assessing educators’ technology skills. One con would be if educators don’t take the technology assessments seriously. For example, if teachers wouldn’t tell the truth on the assessments. This would be a problem because then the teachers wouldn’t be able to improve in the area of their weakness. Another con would be if principals would start using these assessments as a means of termination. I don’t think principals should use these assessments to terminate teachers because it should be used for evaluation purposes only. This could also cause teachers to not tell the truth on the assessments.

As stated before, I do believe that it is important and beneficial to assess an educator’s technology leadership knowledge and skills as well as assessing the knowledge and skill of student technology skill levels. It seems like every career now has implemented technology, so why not integrate technology in the curriculum. We need to introduce technology to our students early so that they will be able to compete with other students.

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