Final Exam- Reflective Post

Being an Education major, I was excited to be able to take a class that wasn't math, or history. Finally a class that pertained to what I wanted to do with my life and that interested me. With that being said, when I saw that it was a technology based class, I was a little hesitant being that I am not the most technologically advanced person in the world. After coming to the class for the first couple of weeks, and getting to know some of the people in my class, and getting my feet wet with some new technology, I felt one hundred times more confident using technology on my own. The blog post was particularly something that I thought was the most helpful in helping me learn and get used to using different tools and programs. Being that I had to do that on my own and on a regular basis, it really forced me to learn it for myself and explore the tools and programs out there to use as a future teacher. Second to the blog, some of my other favorite activities we did were the Geocache and the Collaborative Lesson Plan. Being able to interact with classmates and learn together made it especially interesting. We were able to bounce ideas off of each other, and work together to produce something, much like what it would be like working in a school with other teachers. If i had to enhance the class in any way, I might just add a test or two throughout the course, maybe that quizzed us on the textbook readings, or class lectures.

In regards to the Lesson Outcomes that we looked at in the beginning of the semester, I can definitely say that we covered all of them throughout the course. In completing our Collaborative Lesson Plan, we addressed the outcomes of developing an Internet based project incorporating technology, as well as creating ways to help English Language Learners through technological tools and teaching methods. Through the Discussion Boards we participated in over the semester, we addressed the learning outcomes of selecting tools that would be beneficial for special and diverse learners, identifying and researching ethical and legal issues for using technology in a classroom, and lastly analyzing websites based on national and state educational resources. Through creating our teacher webpage and portfolio I was able to address the learning outcome of reflecting on ways that I would use technology in a classroom, and how I would teach in a K-12 classroom. Last but not least, through reviewing a website of my choice, I was able to address the outcome of evaluating and critiquing software tools that could possibly be used in a classroom setting. It has been a great semester, and the resources that I learned about in this class, such as KaHoot, Delicious, Wordle, and Wikispaces, will be things that I use in my classroom when I finally become a teacher.  Thank you for a great year, and everything that you taught me! :)

 Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.