Reflection - Learning Theory and Technology Tools

Reflection of my personal theory of learning and use of technology.

I mentioned early on in our course that I use nonlinguistic and cooperative learning style techniques to teach my students. Due to the new technology discovered over the past several weeks, I have expanded on my learning style to include these new technologies. I feel that I have deepened my knowledge on the use of certain technologies in the classroom by experimenting with and implementing the technology with my students. New discoveries and creativity with the technology has made my courses more interactive and fun. I feel as if a completely new window of opportunities has opened up for my courses.

Immediate adjustments that I have made to my courses are the use of VoiceThread and Blogs. I created a class blog for each of my classes so that students and parents know what we are working on and can provide feedback and input. VoiceThread is used in my web design course so that the students can interact with each other’s work and offer up constructive criticism through either voice or text. Using blogs and VoiceThread shows that I am using 21^st- Century skills and that I am keeping current with technology. I have had to adjust my teaching style a little bit to accommodate these new teaching tools, and so far, it has been well worth it.

One long-term goal I have is to help train other staff members on how to use VoiceThread and how impactful its use can be in the classroom. I will make a request to demonstrate this tool during one of our tech tool classes, which are offered once a month on Wednesdays. The teacher in charge of this is always looking for suggestions, so I believe I can get it on the calendar for next school year. Another long-term goal I have is to gain access to social media sites at school for educational purposes. As of now, many sites are blocked by the school district, and even the teachers do not have access to valuable resources such as Wikipedia and Youtube. Gaining access to these sites will be a big help.