Course Reflection

I would consider myself an “early adopter” in the world of educational and instructional technology. I was quickly convinced in my first few years of teaching in the early 2010s that students, in general, preferred to use technology to complete assignments. As digital natives/residents, they naturally took to it and it was a comfortable space for them. I fought and worked hard to raise money for 1:1 devices for my classroom before they were ubiquitous, and I saw the benefit it offered my students in terms of engagement. This course helped fine tune my background knowledge, classroom skills, and philosophy of why I believed what I believe about technology in the classroom. While many of my current understandings and values were confirmed, I also got to dig into areas of new learning that helped me shift my beliefs as well.

SAMR and the technology framework module helped me understand the different levels of support teachers need in implementing technology. Instead of throwing project based learning tech projects at those who weren’t ready for them or simply asking students to create slide decks to support presentations, I was able to picture more concretely the ways to support teachers where they are at. Some might need baby steps to have kids collaborate on a Google Doc while others are ready to offer choices that students are naturally ready to take, such as creating a website project to show their learning or a screencast to teach others what they have learned.

As a proponent of engagement first, the Active Learning module really hit home. I would love an entire course on interactive learning and a student centered classroom where we can learn the different leaders and designers of interactive learning strategies like Responsive Classroom, Kagan, Facing History, etc. I’m a lover of resources and plug and play options and believe that the more tools teachers are equipped with, the more choices they can offer students to keep their attention, commitment, and engagement.

I particularly appreciated the focus on Accessibility and AI. I believe the core idea of technology is to make life more efficient, not make more work - see escalators instead of stairs. Working with sub groups of students like neurodivergent thinkers, those with IEPs, and multilingual learners has always been an area of growth for me. I’ve leaned heavily on their case managers as making class engaging and effective for the whole group is a task worth a full time job, while modifying and differentiating assignments and activities felt like another job unto itself. However, we can leverage the tech space to help those students access the core through assistive technology that is now on each of their Chromebooks ready to go for them. We can use AI to help brainstorm, modify, and translate materials. We can make our lives more efficient to give us the time we need and lessen our cognitive load so we can spend it working directly with students and being creative.

However, I would say that the part of this class that changed me the most is the indirect encouragement to take advantage of all the good things the internet has to offer. As I wrote in multiple posts, my relationship with social media really started to wane as I interacted with it more and more, but I’m now encouraged to try to extend my PLN and to be less of a visitor and more of a resident in some spaces. As my personality tests demonstrated, I am someone who loves continuous learning and gathering new ideas to try. If my current role and network isn’t offering me the chance to explore those as much as I like, there is an entire world out there of people who are in a similar boat as me. There are people out there ready to help and encourage and keep me motivated. Plus, I’m in my 40s now with nearly 15 years of experience in the field. Perhaps, I need to understand that I, too, have ideas to offer to support and motivate the next generation of folks who were just like me 15 years ago. Being a new teacher is hard and having tips and tricks to make the job easier and more enjoyable can be a game changer.

My first GIF was one that was more of excitement. My final GIF is more of confidence and a more concrete, foundational understanding of my beliefs. I got this.

via Tim Robinson on GIPHY