Looking Back & Looking Ahead

Looking Back.. Looking Ahead: EDU 776

An "In Conclusion" to All that I have Learned in Integrating Technology

Photo Source: https://www.okcps.org/domain/106

What I Learned: To be honest, when I signed up to take this class I thought, "what more could I learn about technology?  Dear Dominican, why do I have to take this to be a teacher?"  Well, how naive was I to think that!  Turns out I knew little.  In fact, I didn't know anything that was incorporated into this class.  I learned many new things each week in this 8 week course.  

• I learned that technology may not be as hard as it sounds.
• I learned how to blog and the importance of blogging.  
• I learned about different technological frameworks when it comes to education.  
• I learned about several different trends in educational technology.  
• I learned what a digital space map was...and I also learned that I need to increase mine!
• I learned about Web 2.0 and the tools that go along with that term.
• I learned new applications and websites can help teachers..even if their Promethean board hurts them :)
• I learned that people may not be as anonymous as they think they are.
• I learned that a professional web presence is important in connecting and collaborating with other educators.
• Most of all, I learned that technology in education isn't going away.  It can help educators in lesson planning, meeting goals, including ALL students, differentiating, collaborating, and SO much more!

Viewpoints Changed: In beginning of this course I thought that technology would obviously be incorporated into my classroom, but I was unsure how.  I knew I would use assistive technology, GoNoodle, Google Docs, and ClassDoJo, but I am now more aware and more comfortable with learning about new applications to incorporate into my classroom and lesson plans.  I was pretty resistant to the thought of that before because I have not seen a classroom where that sort of freedom works.  (I think that everyone should take this class).

A Topic that Stood Out to Me: I REALLY enjoyed the blogging aspect to this course.  I enjoyed each topic for different reasons.  I quickly learned that it is an easy and fast way to get feedback, learn, and collaborate.  My favorite collaborative post was the Web 2.0 post.  I loved learning about different tools and thinking about how I could use that in my future classroom.  I also LOVED creating my professional web presence.  I created this website to highlight my educational philosophies and coursework.  This project brought it all together for me.  I was able to really think about WHY I want to become a teacher and what I have done to get there.  I am not sure if that was what this project was supposed to do?  I can picture myself updating it with my resume after student teaching and adding it to my portfolio in interviews and cover letters.  It allowed me to incorporate my love for education and my new technological knowledge into one piece.

Tools for My Future Classroom:

• This blog!
• Twitter
• My Website
• Tools & Applications
• Seesaw
• Nearpod
• Augmented Reality Applications 
• Flipgrid
• Thinglink
• Explain Everything
• Newsela
• Keeping an open mind when it comes to all things technology

Thank You to my instructor Nicole Zumpano and to my peers in this class for taking me out of my comfort zone and for teaching me SO much about educational technology!  This will not be the end of my education on technology....more to follow I am sure!