Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Final Reflection For the Semester


Part I: Reflection on Educational Philosophy

Looking back at my first post I feel that my educational philosophy has slightly changed, but for the most part it still holds true. After taking this course and interacting with technology in an educational setting more, I think there are several ways to incorporate technology into our daily lives in the classroom than what I originally knew about. I think that my mindset when developing my original educational philosophy incorporating technology saw technology as more of a “special occasion” type of thing. Now, I see that technology isn’t a special occasion thing, but it is something that everyone uses daily and that our students should know how to navigate and interact with without being intimidated. I think my philosophy has only slightly changed in the way technology is viewed. I will incorporate technology into the classroom daily and ensure that my students have the tools necessary to navigate through technology almost instinctively. With our world quickly becoming technology driven, being a technologically literate person is crucial in reaching success.

Being a little more specific, I will utilize technology in my classroom in several ways. I will create a classroom blog where my students and their families can access a virtual classroom having most of our in-class resources and tools available to them any time they need it. This will also help my students’ families become technologically literate, or maintain their already existing knowledge of technology. I will also incorporate technology into lessons whenever possible, having students create PowerPoints or graphs to effectively convey a message. I will provide my students with several opportunities to utilize technology in an academic setting, preparing them for their future educational needs.



Part II: Reflection on Implementation of each ISTE NET Standard

Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

·         Promote, support and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness- These elements were addressed in lessons I’ve created throughout the semester by having students create different artifacts through the use of technology. This allows students to express themselves creatively through the use of technology. In my lessons specifically, students created and modeled bar graphs and created virtual posters and power points to demonstrate their mastery of content being taught. I feel that this was an appropriate way to approach these elements because it allowed for students to meet the objectives of the lesson while using their creativeness and familiarity with technology to do so.

·         Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources – These items weren’t specifically addressed in any of my lessons this semester, but I’d address these topics in the classroom by creating research projects for students, allowing them to utilize the resources available to them via technology to extend their knowledge outside of the classroom. With the guide of the teacher, students will develop their research skills and be able to explore real world issues through a variety of resources and learn to differentiate reliable sources from commercial resources. This is an appropriate and effective way to approach these items because it gives students the tools necessary to learn to utilize the internet in a more mature and effective manner than playing academic games or other review tools that can be found on the internet.

·         Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning and creative processes – To implement these ideas in my classroom I would have students create and keep a virtual journal that would also serve as a communication tool between myself and the students. It could be saved onto the share drive and as the teacher I can respond by inserting text boxes where appropriate. This would be an effective way to approach this standard because it allows to students to reflect while using tools available to them through technology.

·         Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face to face and virtual environments – This was modeled in a lesson I did in having students make Glogs (virtual posters) to describe and give examples of homonyms and homophones. The students worked in partners and utilized technology to find three examples of each and put them together to create a Glog. This is a good way to implement this part of the standards because students are working collaboratively and working with their peers face to face and through a virtual environment.

Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

·         Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity – These elements were incorporated in a math lesson I did that had the students survey their peers and collect data and create a virtual bar graph with the data they collected. This shows students engaging in learning that is relevant to them and incorporates digital resources. The students are also using creativity in creating their bar graphs and designing them and putting them together.

·         Develop technology enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress – I would develop technology enriched learning environments for students by providing them access to technology as often as possible. I would organize trips to the computer lab to help students familiarize themselves with technology as well as utilizing classroom sets of laptops whenever possible to have students complete assignments online. I would also have a virtual classroom available online for students and parents to access the resources available to them via online resources. I think this would help students manage their own learning and assess their own progress by having them utilize technology to monitor their learning whenever possible.

·          Customize and personalize learning activities to address student’s diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digitals tools their own progress – Learning activities can be personalized to address students’ diverse learning styles by having each child be held accountable for their own learning by incorporating each of the previous mentioned strategies. If students utilize technology appropriately and become active members of the technological world, they can customize and personalize their learning experiences and their diverse needs would be addressed.

·         Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching – These elements of the standard can be implemented by the teaching using data collected through a variety of formative and summative assessments and keeping the data via technology and utilizing that data to drive instruction. Depending on the age of the students, students can also keep track of their own learning by recording results from formative and summative assessments and keeping a personal log using an online tool.



Standard 3: Model Digital – Age Work and Learning

·         Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations – This can be adapted into the classroom with students taking previous knowledge of technology and the basic use of computers and utilizing that knowledge to further their learning in technology. This can be done especially well with students in older grades that can effectively demonstrate fluency in technology systems and transfer that knowledge to new technologies and current situations by taking their previous basic computer skills and using that as a foundation to further their learning.

·         Collaborate with students, peers, and parents and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation – I feel that having a classroom blog is a great way to implement this standard because it has the teacher collaborate with students and peer and parents. If appropriate the blog can be open to the community as well. I think this is an effective way to implement this standard because it meets every piece of criteria mentioned in the standard.

·         Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats – I think the classroom blog also meets this standard because it will communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, peers and parents using a variety of digital age formats. Within the blog there can be multimedia videos, pictures, articles or any form of communication needed to effectively meet this standard.

·         Model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning – A great way to encompass this standard is to create a research project and have students use technology to gather information. This will allow students to meet every part of the standards by effectively using current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze and evaluate information resources to support their research and learning.

Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

·         Advocate, model and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources – I think using the above example of having students create an interactive research project would be a good way to implement this strategy because it would be a great way to teach students about copyright and the appropriate documentation of sources among many other things. Teaching students how to filter out unreliable sources and appropriately site those sources.

·         Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner – centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources – This standard can be met by having students work on individualized projects that have strategies targeting each students specific needs and allowing them to work on those needs by utilizing the digital tools and resources available to them. This is appropriate because giving students the opportunity to learn to navigate technology independently can be very beneficial and meets the criteria in this standard.

·         Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information – I think this standard can be incorporated into everything we do in the classroom. I feel that this is appropriate for this standard because in everything we do in the classroom we need to always promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology. As teachers, we should model appropriate behavior for our students and lead by example what students should be doing

·         Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools – One way to incorporate this standard into the classroom is having students choose a holiday they would like to research and then having them present it. This will have students model a cultural understanding and global awareness by researching and learning  about different cultures.



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