EDLD+5364+Final+Assessment

1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned? I was not quite sure what to expect from this course. I have never completed an online collaborative group study. I knew that I wanted to learn about incorporating more technology into my daily life by learning about possible uses for Web 2.0 tools inside my math classroom. The group aspect truly enhanced the possibilities that students of any age can use to further their own knowledge. I believe that I have learned multiple ways for new technology to be used in an intermediate classroom. With the use of Google Docs for our collaborative project, I learned that not only can students interact with each other, but they can also provide vital feedback on an ongoing project. It is not only the teacher that is assessing, but the student as well. It was also nice to see the variety of uses for technology within everyone’s activity. With the use of this technology and others like it, the opportunities for ongoing assessments are endless. 2. To the extent that you achived the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not? They are definitely relevant to the work that I do in my class. I teach 7th Grade mathematics and there are always opportunities for the students to integrate technology into the curriculum. It was great that within my group we were able to use 7th Grade math for our scenario as well. It was interesting to see how each of my team members would use technology in a classroom like mine. All of the technology that I have been introduced to in this class can not only help what I do on a daily basis, but my students as well. I always wondered how I could use technology into a math classroom and this class has helped to see that the new Web 2.0 tools are useful to any classroom, especially math. I have actually started to already use these technology tools into my class room. This week, I actually had my students use [|Poll Everywhere] to answer a vocabulary question. Without the knowledge that this class offered, I never would have had the bravery to try something like this with my classes. My students have talked more about using this technology in their classes than anything else I have done all year long! I am so very thankful that this class gave the opportunities for trial and error that this class has offered. 3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? I feel that I achieved most of my goals for this class. On the other hand, I felt that time management was a huge obstacle for me. With the holidays occurring during this class, the extra time that I had with my other class was not there. I was out of town during one of the weeks for this class and did not have regular Internet access. However, this also helped me to figure out how to make time to finish the requirements for this class. In addition to this being early on in my graduate studies, the balancing act between my job and its responsibilities and these online courses is going to be a long learning process for myself. I felt that before this class I had a fairly good handle on finishing everything in a timely manner, but when I had group assignments due, I had to modify my learning process to fit others needs as well. I also felt sometimes that I did not understand the overall requirements of the group project. It was helpful that I had group members that were able to explain any problems that I had with the instructions for the group scenario. 4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? I was fairly successful in completing the course assignments. However, there were some obstacles to completing these assignments. Time management was a large factor in completing the assignments for this class due to various assignments, individually and collaboratively. Another obstacle was the fact that this class was held during a holiday, so finishing those assignments during the holiday week, when there was limited internet access became hard for me as well. Another overall obstacle was for our group members personal work preferences. Some of the group members liked to work on their group work early on in the week, while others tended to finish the group participation during the end of the week. The cause of this was conflicting schedules and personal preferences and we all of course were able to finish the required pieces, but the juggling act of finishing the project all while depending on others and completing independent assignments was rather daunting. 5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? I was able to learn a lot about myself as a classroom teacher and future technology leader. As a classroom teacher I learned a lot about basic Web 2.0 tools that I can use to incorporate more technology into my math curriculum. With the realization that most of my students know how to use some of these tools already, the implementation to my curriculum should be seamless. I have also already begun to implement some of the tools that were suggested into my classroom and have seen the positive effect it has on my students. As a future technology leader, I have learned that collaborative work between professionals is possible and beneficial. The learning potential grows the more collaborative work that is offered. I have much to learn about discussing these concepts with peers, but with more classes offered in technology implementation I have faith that my confidence and abilities will grow.