One Small Step for Mankind...

My personal theory of learning has not undergone drastic changes since beginning this course, although I have definitely tweaked it some.  I still maintain that students need to find the content relevant before they will commit it to long term memory.  Further, I continue to believe that students need to experience the real life aspect of content, especially in my field, social studies.  I believe that technology can be a great aid in making that leap from words on a page to relevant information much easier.  As a part of that, students need to be active learners whenever possible.  Information that they need to retain should be manipulated by them, whether created, presented, or debated.  Technology makes getting students active in their learning easier in a way that little else can.  One of the great benefits of technology is that it is easy for teachers to identify the work of each individual student.

A change I think I can implement as a result of this course is to begin to implement a few of the technologies immediately.  I have already used the website VoiceThread with my Gifted and Talented class and they really enjoyed using it.  I can foresee a couple of uses for this program before the current school year is completed.  Although we did not necessarily use Wikis in this course but as a result of discussions I think I can successfully implement a wiki assignment as a review before the state test this spring.

Something that this course has significantly altered my teaching practice is that I would like to raise the level of technology interaction my students have with the material. This course has made me more determined and focused to make my students use technology themselves in a way that reinforces learning in my classroom.  I must find ways to make not just having technology, but using technology, to better stimulate my student’s learning.

One long term goal I would like to initiate is to make my instructional practice more technologically intensive for my students.  What I have learned during this course is that students need to be active users of information and that technology is a great way to get students to use content.  I will strive to find new and innovative ways to get my students to use the content that they have learned in my class.  Specifically I would like to try to implement one new tech strategy every month.  This may include online games, presentations, and/or research using internet sites.  I must always try to find ways of making my instruction better – just because it may have worked in years past does not mean I need to keep doing it the same way.

Another idea I have is to continue to experiment myself with blogging and using new online tools.  Long term I would like to see my classroom have a blog and podcast site that my students can go to for reflections and study aids.  I think I need to continue to hone my craft for a time before I go public with this strategy.  If I continue to explore my uses of it by next school year I hope to be ready to take it live.