EDUC 6715 Final Reflection

In the reflection of Walden's EDUC 6715 about new and emerging technologies, the course really forced me to find out about the areas of technology that I simply have little to no knowledge. In my past as a younger teacher within the school setting, I have always been looked at by my own peers as someone who is a educaitonal technology guru, and a role model for implementing contemporary and highly motivating instructional ideas and activities for my students.

Yet within the past academic year or so, I have found that my own pedagogy has become slightly complacent as I have started to view myself as still a rogue forward thinking instructor at my school. Yet I have not developed any new ideas in quite sometime already. This class has forced me to do some real self reflecting about my current practices and whether or not I am simply getting lazy and content with what I already use in the classroom. If I ever do truly get one hundred percent complacent in the classroom, that is the day that I should truly retire from the educational profession.

I loved the ideas presented to me by some of my peers involved in this online cohort program. To keep myself new and afloat with modern educational ideas, I have learned that the Skype program is a great and relatively free way to communicate with each other about collaboration efforts. Also audacity is a great way to introduce my own students for their own podcasting ventures or desires to complete their own sound editing for various school projects.

Through these new ideas presented to me I have realized that it is not only essential to convince myself to make changes in my instructional practice, but also to my own instructional peers, administration, parents and the community for whom my school serves. Without the direct support of all of those who are shareholders overseeing in the success of their educational institutions real effective change in the classroom cannot truly be implemented as well.

EDUC 6714 Final Reflection

From sharing the resources together with my cohort members on the NING social community, I have gained a wealth of knowledge to be used in my classroom. Sharing everyones ideas while using podcasts and voicethreads, it is easily shown that these methods communication can be completed with my own students. Probably the most important resources I picked up from my group were the plethora of online inventories that I could use with my own students to learn their strengths, weaknesses and personality traits that I can cater their education around.

Using these inventories will likely be an immediate adjustment that I will use in my own classroom. I will also likely utilize the online homework system for my students from the University of Texas-Austin for immediate feedback for my students' math assignment. Lastly the PhET simulation software from the University of Colorado-Boulder will greatly supplement any of the major concepts I teach in physics that cannot be seen by neither the naked or magnified human eye.