EDLD+5306+Reflection

EDLD 5306 Reflection

 __Self Reflection/Learn as a Learner__  Trying to reflect on this course was about as difficult as it was to actually start writing the first analysis on January 18, 2010. I have never read so much material in such a short time frame. I felt overwhelmed the first three weeks of the course. I do not know what possessed me to hand write the notes from the readings and video. I guess my digital immigrant characteristics came out for a short time.   I had been on my own island. I was the only person from my school district that was in the Education Technology program. Everyone else was in the Administration course track. I swore that from that point forward that I was going to find students in this program that I could collaborate with and share the same stress level.   Of the eleven courses we have taken, I continually would come back and site the articles and authors’ quotes from this course. Warlick, Kundu and Bain, Solomon, and my favorite author, Marc Prensky were cited many times in the past 18 months. My favorite article, and most enlightening, was the Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Part 1 where Prensky sites Dr. Bruce D. Berry of Baylor College of Medicine “different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures.” “It is very likely that our students’ brains have physically changed- and are different from ours- as a result of how they grew up” (Prensky, 2001).   Another quote from Prensky’s readings also made me take notice of really what we are dealing with as far as how we teach our students, “sure, they have short attention spans – for the old ways of learning” (Westhead, 2001). “Traditional schooling provides very little of this compared with the rest of their world” (Graesser, 1994). “Their attention spans are not short for games, for example, or for anything else that actually interests them. It isn’t that the Digital Natives can’t pay attention, it’s that they choose not to do so” (Prensky, 2001). These readings were very powerful for me and a great resource.   While perusing through the Long Range Plan for Technology and Texas STaR Chart, I found these to be interesting in the fact that Texas has a very specific plan to guide their students into the 21st century to keep pace with the rest of the country and the world. When accessing the information pertaining to the STaR chart for my campus, district, and my individual results, I found that our school is not as far along as what I originally thought. All of the school indicators showed to be at Level 2, which is Developing Tech in all four key areas. On a personal note, I scored at an advanced or target level on my STaR chart Teacher Report.   Creating blogs and wikis was a productive skill for me; however, I have to say that I did not utilize these as much as I could. I plan on implementing these more with the faculty as I prepare for next fall. I will have an opportunity to catch my breath, reflect on all the web 2.0 tools, and put them to good use. I think the Google sites are a better because of the look and manipulation of the information going in as well.   I think the discussion boards were ok. I would rather have interaction on a video conference than writing to a discussion board. Discussion board responses might come more than 24 hours later to a question that was posted on it. The discussion board was the last thing I typically completed during the week’s activities as it was at the bottom of my priority list. Video conferences and readings were at the top of my list.  The challenge for me after this program is completed is to go back and find the information, re-read the articles, and implement the tools that teachers and students can find to be most beneficial in their settings.

 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lifelong Learning Skills __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unfortunately with the turn of events that has happened over the past few months, budgets are being cut. Continuous training done in a traditional manner may not be a viable option for districts at this time. However, school districts can turn to online virtual options for continuous staff development for their teachers. Training and staff development that “provides follow-up support will increase the likelihood of implementation” (Bradshaw, 1997). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This assignment opened my eyes to each of the areas of the STaR chart and allowed me to be more accurate on my own ratings for myself. I think all teachers would benefit from this in-depth look at why we have the STaR chart and how important it is for teachers to give truthful and honest answers to the different areas. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> References <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bradshaw, L. K. (1997). Technology-supported change: a staff development opportunity. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Prensky ,M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants: Part 1. //On the Horizon,// 9(5),1-6. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Prensky ,M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants: Part 2. //On the Horizon,// 9(6),1-9.