• What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?
Modeling is very important when integrating technology into education. There will always be troubleshooting necessary, but much of that can be eliminated if the software or project is first modeled for the students. The focus should be on the curriculum first with technology being the tour guide to get you to the learning objectives. Avoiding as much troubleshooting as possible will help keep the focus on the goal.
When integrating technology the students become active learners. The teacher can become a guide many times as the student takes charge of their own learning.
• How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?
Evaluating web based technologies would have been next to impossible without first integrating them on my own. Through using Google documents in the CEP courses, website creation tools, survey creators, blogs, delicious, and more I was able to learn about the technologies and truly evaluate them. Exploration of the web based technologies opened up my imagination to start thinking of different ways within my curriculum that these would be useful. I even extended my thinking to helping my husband out at work! Being a pool manager he now uses Google calendars to create his employee schedule and survey monkey to collect data/available dates for scheduling meetings and parties. I will be using Google calendars this upcoming school year to do my volunteer schedule, my website to communicate with parents, survey monkey to assess technology access, Microsoft Photo Story 3 to create digital stories, and more!
• How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?
I set four personal goals for myself when beginning my CEP courses.
1. To use technology in positive ways to deliver instruction.
2. To use technology to give students practice on concepts being taught.
3. To aide instruction, not just to use it.
4. To learn to use programs to their fullest potential.
Through the CEP courses I was able to reach each of these goals. Through my work on the WebQuest I was able to use web resources to positively deliver instruction. Through my StAIR I was able to use technology to give students practice on concepts being taught. Through my TechQuest I was able to use technology to aide instruction and not just for the sake of using technology. Through the tutorials I was able to learn a great deal more about the Microsoft programs and how to use them to their fullest potential.
These were all positive experiences that I can take away from these courses and use in the future. I have already used my WebQuest, StAIR, and part of the TechQuest with my students. The success with my students from this gives me encouragement to go forward with more of these types of lessons.
• Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?
My new goals are:
1. To continue researching web based technologies and finding uses for them in my classroom.
2. To continue research on Digital Storytelling and use it in my classroom this year.
3. To do more research on Digital Voice Recorders and set up a recording studio in my classroom by Fall 2011.
4. To update and use my website as a communication tool for my classroom.
5. To complete my MAET by the Spring of 2012.
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Sonja, It was great to hear that you were able to meet your educational goals for all three CEP classes. How awesome is that? After reading your TechQuest project, I have become inspired to take a closer look at digital recorders. I used them a couple of years a ago, when podcasting was just starting to take hold. But never explored other uses for them beyond that - I'm now thinking of using them to address reading fluency issues with my students. Best of luck as you continue on with your MAET studies.
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