Looking back, Looking ahead

Perspective Changes on use of Technology in Education

Before beginning this course I was very excited because I enjoy using technology in the classroom and wanted to gain more tools and resources to incorporate.  Although I try to use technology as much as possible, I knew that I had a lot of room for growth.  I realized after learning more about active learning that I tend to use technology to increase engagement in the classroom.  For instance, when I was at a school district with SmartBoards I used them daily and thought this was using technology effectively since I spent a lot of time making my presentations visually appealing.  However, active learning is not just about surface level engagement, but creating student centered lessons that promote collaboration and reflection.  I do use a variety of websites in my classroom such as Nearpod, Padlet, and Popplet that I believe require my students to actively learn, but I want to ensure I'm incorporating this type of learning everyday in the classroom. 

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One way to do this is to start having students extend their learning by integrating social media tools into the classroom.  My views on social media in education have completely shifted in the past couple months. Previous to this course I viewed social media as a personal aspect to one's life and that it should be separated from work and school.  However, after creating a Twitter account and reading about specific ways to include social media into the classroom in an article by Michael-Ann Cerniglia, I have realized the relevance and meaningfulness of adding these tools into the classroom.  Social media is an excellent way to not only engage students on an assignment, but can be used in a manner that promotes active learning.  When students are required to post, tweet, blog, or pin they are reflecting on their learning and provided the opportunity to make relevant connections to the real world.  

Specific Tools I Plan on Incorporating into the Classroom Next Year

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In order to ensure I'm not overwhelming myself at the start of the school year and spending enough time making myself aware of each technological tool in order to create effective lessons, I'm going to focus on one of these tools each month.  

• Hyperdocs: I created a screen cast on this topic and plan on using the templates available in order to plan and implement meaningful lessons and projects
• Blogger: I would like to have each of my students create a Blogger account and instead of assigning traditional writing assignments, I can have them create a post instead.  I will then have students comment on classmates' posts (similarly to the structure of this course)
• myHomework: This will be my first tool for the first month of the school year.  I'm excited to use this application to teach students executive functioning and organizational skills
• AudioBoom: I plan on incorporating this feature into a project in order to show parents student work at parent teacher conferences
• MangaHigh: I found this resource through a classmate's screencast discussing a digital tool.  I would like to use this as an interactive math homework assignment so students are able to check their answers and receive additional help
• Diigo: I also found this resource through a classmate's screen cast and will introduce this extension when assigning a research project so students are able to annotate and add comments to articles they find online