Reflection: Final Blog Posting

             My own technology skills have developed so much in the last seven weeks of this Masters class.  I have truly amazed myself with what I have learned.  First, I learned how to set up my own blog, and participate in reading and commenting on other people’s blogs.  I learned what a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed is, and the value of it.  For the first time ever, I was part of a wiki built by my Walden University classmates.  We collaborated to develop a wiki site that could be used as a teacher’s resource for great websites.  The last big thing I learned was how to make a podcast.  After making a podcast, I also learned how to upload it to my blog.  These are all new skills that I can now use in my 2^nd grade classroom.

            This class deepened my knowledge of what 21^st century skills include.  In our online classroom video called Skills For The 21^st Century (Laureate, 2011), Dr. Thornburg lists over a dozen 21^st century skills and dispositions.  They are as follows: 1)information literacy 2)critical thinking 3)problem solving 4)communication skills 5)teamwork and collaboration 6)information technology 7)leadership 8)creativity and innovative thinking 9)lifelong learning 10)self-direction 11)professionalism 12)ethics and 13)social responsibilities.  It is eye opening to realize that there is so much we need to do as teachers to prepare our students to work in the modern world.  Technology is changing our world and expanding the need for our students to not only be able to use new technology tools, but to be critical thinkers, good problem solvers, and able to work as a team.  Our job as teachers is not getting easier because of technology, it is getting more complex.

I have a slightly different perspective now about the teacher-centered versus learner-centered classroom.  I can clearly see now that the teacher-centered classroom is becoming old school, and the learner-centered classroom helps build necessary 21^st century skills.  A learner-centered classroom promotes students  working as a team, developing problem-solving or critical thinking skills, being creative and using innovative thinking.  It does not seem like an option for education to stay with the teacher-centered classroom since we are trying to prepare our students for the 21^st century. 

The ways I will continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement is to continue my lifelong education.  This Masters program is a crucial piece in my education, at this point.  I have been teaching elementary school for sixteen years, and my weak spot is using technology to its fullest. That is why I chose this particular Masters program.  I am learning and will continue to learn the many new innovative tools available for teaching. There is a wealth of information online that will help me stay informed as a teacher, and I am learning where to find it.  Reading articles and blogs written by teachers is priceless.  I will continue to participate with this new found online community.  Now that I know how to create  blogs, podcasts, and wikis I will continue to learn the best applications for them in my 2nd grade classroom.

My first long term goal is to increase the amount of computer time my students have from forty-five minutes a week, to forty-five minutes a day.  This may mean I will take them into the computer lab more often, as the school schedule allows, or I may solicit more computers for my classroom.  I only have four computers for my students to share, at this point.  I will volunteer to be a teacher representative for the technology committee in the Fall of 2012.  This way I will have a voice in what is being purchased for our school and why.

My second long term goal is to truely create a learning environment which not only integrates innovative technology, but develops more 21st century learning skills with authentic assessments.  I will continue to value creativity, communication, collaboration, and use authentic learning tasks more and more.  It is a huge systematic obstacle to overcome the use of high stakes tests and replace them with more authentic assessments.  Unfortunately, how teachers teach is often driven by the high stakes testing because we feel the pressure to have our students do well on the state testing.  The testing may or may not change in the next two years, but at least I can incorporate more authentic assessments into my classroom.  I will begin to participate in the national dialogue on this issue of testing, and how it needs to change.  

In regards to the checklist titled Practices to Support 21st Century Skills in week #1 of this course, almost everything I checked was in the "sometimes" column.  There is one noticeable difference with one particular category for me.  At the beginning of this course, I checked "rarely" do I collaborate with students to explore and evaluate new and emerging technologies and investigate how these tools can be used to solve problems in real world environments.  Now, I "often" collaborate and ask for my students' feedback when exploring the use of a new technology in the classroom.  Also, I am moving more towards "often" in many of the categories.  Definitely I have moved to the "often" column with designing learning experiences that require students to formulate questions for inquiry and engage in real-world problem-solving activities.  An upcoming Social Studies lesson will be a huge leap into this type of teaching practice.  This will be our classroom trial of Alexander T. Wolf (aka The Big Bad Wolf), which I have addressed on my blog and in my Application paper last week.  All in all, I am making progress in my skills and practices regarding integrating technology in the classroom. 



The International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) NETS for teachers (2008) clearly outlines standards for teaching in the digital age. These five standards are: 1)facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity 2)design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments 3)modern digital-age work and learning 4)promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility and 5)engage in professional growth and leadership.  Technology is changing the way we teach from a teacher-centered to a student-centered approach to learning. I think it is very exciting to be part of such a dramatic change in history, and our students are worth all the effort.      

Reference List
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). NETS for teachers. Retrieved from
http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Skills for the 21st century. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6489402&Survey=1&47=9700022&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1