Personal Learning Reflection in CEP 810

I must admit at the beginning of this course, I did not integrate a lot of technology into my teaching. I did regularly use a smart board and integrate text, images, and video into my teaching, but that was it. When creating lessons, adding technology was not one of the first things on my mind. If it could fit in great, but if not, I did not go out of my way to incorporate it.  However, now my vision has changed. Through this course, I have learned about many technology tools, how to use them, and how to incorporate them into student learning and promoting 21^st century learning. Towards the end of this school year, I was trying to incorporate technology and promote digital learning if everything I did with my students.

It is important for educators to promote 21^st century learning. Our students already used e-mail, Facebook, cell phone, and iPods in their daily lives to communicate and share information. Why are we as teachers not tapping into their digital skills in the classroom and utilizing their skills and talents with these technology tools to help promote better learning?  This course has helped me to reflect on my own teaching strategies and the tools that I use in my classroom. I have learned so much that I can take back with me as I plan for the future.

The whole world is using the Internet as a tool for things such as communication, information sharing, collaboration, and the like. It is important to teach students how to properly use the tools available to them and to introduce them to the tools that are out there to promote success as they try to achieve their personal best in the classroom.

Throughout this course, I feel that all of the portfolio assignments and participation assignments have given me ideas of how good teaching can occur with technology. I have had the opportunity to learn first hand many of the tools out there. It will take time to learn all the in’s and out’s to each tool and to see how they work with a group of students. I now have the start to a magnificent digital toolbox that I can use for the years to come.

Based on my personal growth plan that I wrote at the beginning of this course, I have grown in many ways. First and foremost, I have looked a technology in a different light and have made it a bigger priority in my teaching to help promote better learning and promote 21^st century learners.  I have learned to create a blog and use it as a tool for communication and information sharing. I have yet to learn the way to create a website, but hope to do so in future courses. I have gathered and used many tools to help promote communication, which is one of my goals as a French teacher. I have successfully learned how to use Skype and VoiceThread, which will be useful to me for years to come. In any case, the tools that I have learned to use will help me integrate new tools for students and hit a variety of learning styles as I present new information to my students.

In the end, I have increased my skills of using technology, added tools to my repertoire for teaching, and through all of this my students will have a well-rounded experience in the classroom where they learn the material and can apply what they know to the world around them.

As for the future, I hoped to continually add to my technology toolbox, integrate technology into my teaching, and promote the use of technology not only to enhance what is going on in the classroom, but to take our future students into our digital world in the 21st century.