What are your "takeaways" from the course?

Before taking this course, I knew that there were online classrooms and traditional classrooms, but did not fully understand the meaning behind blended classrooms.  I now have an idea of how to make my traditional classroom more of a blended learning environment through the use of technology available to me.  I do not have much access to technology in my classroom, but after taking this course I have learned that there are many ways to include technology without having direct access all the time.  Using what I do have available, and the new websites and resources from this course will make this year different from others because I have a renewed excitement for trying new things with my students.  Before taking this course, I was strongly against students bringing in their own devices to use in the classroom.  I now see how useful that can be when I am so limited with technology in the first place. 

I feel that I have a long list of useful websites and resources that I can implement into the classroom and share with my students and colleagues.  I am happy to implement new technology in my curriculum that I feel the students will be excited to use and try out.  I have learned how to connect with other teachers and share ideas through the use of technology.  I have been close-minded to certain tools and social media sites and I am now realizing the value that they can have on my classroom and to me as a teacher.

I have enjoyed reading and learning from other teachers and administrators in this course.  It has been helpful to hear ideas that others have and that some have the same struggles that I have with incorporating technology in the classroom. 

Using social media in the classroom

What is your opinion of using social media such as Facebook and Twitter for educational purposes with older students? Federal law states that individuals must be at least thirteen in order to have an account.

In my opinion, I think it is a great idea to use some form of social media in the classroom.  I think if used appropriately, it can only help to motivate the students to want to learn, explore, and stay connected with the subject being taught.  My school offers webpages for teachers to post information about themselves, the class, and assignments, however; not many students use the school webpages.  Students are much more apt to go to a Facebook page because it is not linked directly to school.  I think it would be a fun way to get students to be thinking about your class outside of the classroom.  Obviously there has to be ground-rules, monitoring, and permission from parents and administration to do this. 

What tool would you like to use in the future?

One tool that stood out to me to curate teaching resources was Scoop.it.  I would like to learn more about this tool.  I thought that Scoop.it was easy to read and visually pleasing.  I liked that you could leave a comment and that it looked a lot like Facebook considering most people use Facebook.  You could just click on the resource and would be taken directly to that site.  This will be a tool that I investigate in the future. 

Which concepts are most applicable and which are harder to incorporate?

Which concepts from the course seem most applicable?  

This course has given me a whole new world of apps and websites to use with my students.  I was not aware of all the different websites out there and how to use them appropriately in the classroom.  I like the video by Michele Eaton that broke down the websites into categories for assessment tools.  I have enjoyed using Symbaloo myself and also the padlet for discussion.  I have learned that it doesn't have to be so difficult to incorporate technology when there are so many tools out there to choose from. 

Which concepts will be harder to incorporate?

For me, I believe that authentic assessments may be harder to incorporate for several reasons.  I have very little time in the day to work on new ideas and to create projects and things for my students.  I also have very little technology in my actual classroom so for the students to be able to access technology they either have to have their own and work from home or I have to take the class to a lab.  I also feel that my students do not have a great understanding of technology and all its uses.  Many of my students do not have a home computer or access to a variety of technology. 

Where do you fall on the Technology Integration Matrix?

 

Technology Integration Matrix

Where would you rate yourself in each area?

In the TIM (technology integration matrix), I believe I am in between the "adoption" and "adaptation" levels of technology integration.  Within these two levels I usually have my students being active learners from the technology or collaborating in groups.  I do not have access to a lot of technology and because of this I feel stuck in these levels of integration.


 Where do you think you could reasonably be at the end of the next grading period?

I do feel that I can do a much better job in using the technology that students are using everyday outside of the classroom such as their phones, computers at home, television, etc.  If I can incorporate these tools into my classroom than I believe I can be totally into the "adaptation" level and into the "infusion" level as well.


 What steps will you need to take in order to make the growth happen?

I need to be very creative in using technology that is available to my students outside of my classroom and how I will integrate it back into my class.