It has been a very enlightening journey for me this semester and I would like to take a few moments to reflect on everything that I have learned. I would first like to talk about how my understandings of processes that govern the learning process have changed. As a creative individual both in and out of the classroom I am always looking for new ways to express myself, and for new ways to allow my students to express themselves. In the past I have mostly done this through more traditional means be it painting, music performance, or writing. Of course all of these modes of expression are very useful though with the tools afforded by the technological revolution I can see that I have only scratched the ice of the creative potential the human mind is capable of expressing.
All of my lessons involved the integration of some sort of technology. One tool that helped me to facilitate student's learning and creativity exponentially was the digital microscope paired with the smart board. Designing a lesson involving microscopes would typically require that the teacher is assuming that every student is seeing the same thing through several different microscopes. The digital microscope, however enabled everyone in the learning group to view the same thing at the same time. Using the video function allowed me to learn of a new way to access student's learning and ability to properly use this type of technology.
One thing that comes to mind quite often when I design lessons is how I can make accommodations and modifications for my students with disabilities. During my time in this class I have found just how helpful technology can be in assisting my teaching without causing any disruptions. The iPad is a tool that enables a myriad of accommodations to be implemented smoothly. On a single devise I can help a non verbal student to speek by using an app such as diego says. This app is designed to talk for the individual. By pressing on images that represent the words the student can form sentences answer questions, and express needs appropriately.
Assessing students by using technology may have been the high point of my learning this semester. By utilizing programs like google drive I am able to share vital information with students and to gather information from them granted we both have internet access. I used this to attain answers from students and to send url's and test questions to them. One amazing aspect of this technology is that if I assign a group paper students can all work on the same paper at the same time while also chatting with each other. This enabled me to cut assessment time in half and to have a definitive archive of the artifacts that I gathered.
Teaching with and to my peers taught me quite a bit about myself as an educator. My strategy typically involved allowing each student in the group to learn one aspect of the lesson by using some type of technology. Once each member learned that item I asked them each to teach each other what they had learned. I found out through my evaluation that students were a little nervous of this at first, though once they became comfortable with their freedom they used it to its full potential. My feedback was usually positive and constructive and beneficial. assessment typically took a somewhat informal form though I gained several artifacts that would prove that I fulfilled the standards that I perscribed for each lesson.
By using technology myself in my lessons I modeled many of my expectations with each activity. I was able to direct student's use of technology by using it properly myself. There were many opportunities for students to cheat in that they had all of the information they could possibly need directly in front of them. They did not however. I believe that this was due to the fact that I set up all of the right supports for them to attain help, and that the lessons were facilitated by the utilization of vast amounts of information via the internet.
After all of this my strategies for teaching have drastically changed for the better. I have found ways to make learning more interactive, easier, and more personalized. I can truly say that I have found a new respect for technology in the classroom. I hope to use the skills and methods that I have learned in this class in my future classroom so that I may be able to help generations to come better, more informed individuals.
