A Personal Reflection

Oh how far we've come in a mere 6 weeks...

When I started this course, my view of “instructional technology” consisted of the idea that I could use a PowerPoint when teaching my class and, occasionally, I may be able to pull out a video. If I was lucky I figured I would even have a SmartBoard in my classroom (of course, I had no idea how in the world I would ever use such a device in an English classroom). Now I realize the true breadth of instructional technology. Perhaps most helpful was the website review, during which I was able to really spend time searching the internet for teaching tools. I now know that technology can be used in many ways for the classroom, ranging from awesome virtual field trips to simply me, a teacher, using the internet to communicate with colleagues from other areas of the country and world, searching for new strategies to teach or new and effective lessons to use in my own classroom.

I feel far more confident moving forward. I know that there are endless resources to help me work through problems and learn more. And now I know where to go to continue my technology education. My fear of using technology in the classroom has greatly decreased since taking the course. Most specifically, my fear of SmartBoard is (almost) gone. Before I would have never opened SmartBoard and would have been scared to be embarrassed about my technology trouble in front of my students. Now I would definitely use SmartBoard in my classroom and am confident that I could work through any problems I would run into; I also realize my students will prove to be an invaluable tool as well!

Under the right circumstances I would have my students create a wiki/blog. However, I think that in my 7th grade student teaching classroom I would not. It is definitely a tool that would be better for an advanced, mature, high school classroom. If I do use a blog I would have to find a way to check all student responses before they posted; I think keeping everything “appropriate” could be an issue. I doubt students will actually create their own blogs/wikis in my class. Honestly, I think keeping track of them would prove incredibly difficult. I would be far more tempted to create a blog and have students respond to a blog I created.