Course Reflection

What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?
When I started this course I really hoped to gain a better grasp of how technology could help me in the classroom as a teacher. As a result, the course outcomes did not all align with my pre-course goals. But, I am glad they did not for several reasons. First, if they had, my growth after this course would have been limited to growth as a classroom teacher only. For example, I hoped to learn how technology could make my daily tasks more manageable. In some respects it did that. I had been hesitant to really have students use technology. However, after completing the readings during the first two weeks, I better understood the students I am working with and their technological advantages over most teachers.
Primarily, though, I am glad that the course provided the opportunity to start thinking about technology from an administrator’s perspective. The readings helped me reflect on the advantages that technology offer to educators. It helped me to begin to think about some of the issues that technology have created such as cyber bullying, on-line predators, licensing responsibilities and technology drift.

To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?
The course outcomes are still very relevant to the work that I do. Several outcomes are relevant to me as a teacher. It is critical that classroom teachers recognize the needs of digital-age students, and acquire strategies and tools to meet those needs. As an aspiring mentor and curriculum coach it is important that I know how to facilitate the design and implementation of curricula and strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning; alignment of curriculum, curriculum, and assessment; and use of various forms of assessment to measure student performance.
As an aspiring administrator, it is beneficial that I start considering these outcomes as I progress through this program. Because administrators are required to make decisions that affect the entire campus, it is important to examine different data sources that can be used to make informed decisions about technology like the STAR Chart. It is also important that administrators stay abreast of the knowledge, skills, and tools to determine progress toward meeting technology goals. Finally, as the campus leader, administrators must examine responsible decision making related to technology and teaching and learning.
.
What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?
There were not any outcomes that I did not achieve. There were some outcomes that I would have liked to have had more time to investigate.

Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?
I was successful in carrying out most of the course assignments. There were two instances when was frustrated. Like most digital immigrants, technology proved to be a challenge. During week two, I was unable to add the powerpoint to my blog. I was extremely upset by this after spending the time to complete the powerpoint only to have to exclude it from my assignment. During week four, we had a death in the family. I found it very difficult to concentrate; so, completing the assignment was especially difficult.


What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?
After completing this course there were several things that I learned. First, the state has very specific goals regarding technology. These are found in the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology Second, I understand how outdated the way that I was taught and like to learn is outdated. For example, I love reading books and have a very hard time reading long passages of text on a computer screen. However, this seems to be the preferred method for digital natives. They feel about computers and technology the way that I do about books. That is because they grew up with technology much the same way that I grew up with books. Technology offers information and access to a world beyond their immediate surroundings just as books did for me. In addition, it offers the natives and a way to communicate with numerous people in distant places. Understanding this, I am more inspired to develop my technological tools as a teacher and administrator.

What is the educational value of blogs and blogging to the 21st century learner?
Blogging is a valuable tool to educators for several reasons. Now that I have been experienced the benefits of blogging, I am now reading the blogs of other educators and those about education. As a classroom teacher, blogging is a way to gather student input. It is also another way to get students to read and gather information. The district currently provides teachers access to two tools: Moodle and teacherweb. I have used teacherweb for four years, but was never interested in taking the time to learn more about blogging. As a result of this class, I now know what a blog is. Also, I feel a lot more comfortable about my about my capacity to use my newly created blog. I am working to utilize this blog feature in my classroom. As an administrator, a blog could be used to keep parents, teachers and students informed. The principal at my campus has a section of the school webpage that serves much like a blog.


What are the concerns of blogs and blogging in education?
As an educator my concerns with blogging center around the accuracy of information provided in blogs, safety of the students and the PR aspect of blogging. Blogs can be created and maintained by anyone. Therefore, the information contained in them have not been validated or reviewed by peers as scholarly publications are. However, because of the ease of creating a blog, more ordinary teachers who are in the trenches are capable of sharing information. Great information can be shared immediately without the constraints of formality that often hinder implementation of ideas.
In addition, student safety is an issue. What websites will be used and whether they are district supported is a concern for educators. Are the students protected from undesireable sites and people while on the net must also be considered. Does the district require and have a release form when students blog should also be considered.
Also, because of the wide scope of potential readers, remaining credible as a blog creator is important. Any oversight can be published with the push of a button. Fortunately, they can be easily corrected once you realize the mistake. If there is enough time between the time the blog is published and the creator realizes the mistake, the blog could have been read by numerous readers.

How can you use blogging to communicate with school stakeholders?
As an administrator, a blog could be used to keep stakeholders including parents, teachers and students informed. The principal at my campus has a section of the school webpage that serves much like a blog. I could see a blog being a great tool for administrators. Initially, one would have to retrain parents who are digital immigrants to value the blog and visit it frequently. There would be some prep work setting up the blog and really promoting it among stakeholders. Having the blog up and running to promote at the beginning of school year would be a great start. It would be critical to get stakeholders to visit the blog often. The blog could be used as a tool to keep parents and students informed of upcoming events, campus initiatives, volunteer opportunities and more. It would be a great place to post information concerning PTA meetings, board meetings and information from other agendas that parents may not be able to attend.

Technology Staff Development

Two of the needs identified by the Star Chart were educator preparation and development as well as teaching and learning. One reason may be that there hasn’t been enough time and thought devoted to professional development planning that focuses on the use and integration of technology in curriculum instruction and assessment. This training will begin to address this need. This will be a half day training at the beginning of the school year facilitated by the technology specialist. The training will start with the technology specialist selecting two or three programs that are particularly useful and demonstrate how they can be utilized in the classroom. After that, several groups will meet together by departments.

Teachers will bring the curriculum guide for their content area. Each subject area will meet in a different location containing web-connected computers. By the end of the training grade level teams will have utilized their collective power to develop resources for more student-centered lessons that incorporate the use of technology.
Each grade-level team will determine who on their team will research:
1. Websites for teachers, which would be useful for planning purposes;
2. Websites for students, which would be useful for research;
3. Programs to extend student learning (i.e. podcasts, publisher provided resources).
Using the computer, each person will locate and examine websites/programs/resources for its usefulness to integrate into the curriculum. Each person will focus on sites that can be utilized in the first six weeks of school. They will need to focus on the content prescribed by curriculum documents. After an hour to an hour and a half, the teams will come back together to discuss what they found and how it can be used by the team.

To promote continued utilization of technology and assess the training, the professional learning communities will set aside time each six weeks to revisit technology integration. During this time, the group will focus on two questions:
1. Which of the resources were used; and
2. Were there any new resourced identified?