Reflection

As the hours of my last weekend of summer vacation slip away, I reflect on the growth while completing this course: Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work and Society.  I have become more familiar with creating podcast and blogs.  My classmates shared many ideas on incorporating these tools into the classroom.  I also contributed to my first wiki page.  I cannot wait to have my students create wiki page.  I have already started to develop a lesson for my fifth grade art students.  Every year I teach a large cultural mask unit.  This year my students will be creating pages exploring masks from around the world.  Dr. Dede stated, the focus of education has moved away from the individual and towards collaborative work (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).  This wiki is a great way to shift the focus in my classroom.

Since teachers are no longer the primary source of information, it is extremely important that students are able to process and evaluate information that is so readily available to them.  My knowledge for the importance of providing my students the opportunity to practice twenty-first century skills has deepened immensely.  My students will need to evaluate the credibility of online resources, use professionalism while contributing online, and understand the importance of their social responsibility and technology literacy in order to be successful in the future workforce.  

I want my class to become more learner-centered as opposed to teacher-centered.  My perspective on this has not changed.  However, now I have the skills and resources to be able to step back and let my students discover and process new information.  My role needs to shift from instructor to facilitator. I will provide my students will less information and model retrieval more. 

This class may be coming to a close but I will still continue to expand my knowledge of integrating technology into the classroom. I have limited opportunities in my school district for technology staff development.   Therefore, I must seek out my own training.  There are so many valuable online resources have discovered over the last seven weeks.  I have found great online collaborative communities of other art teachers looking to use more technology in the classroom.

I have created a couple goal for myself to accomplish in next few years.   As soon as I am able to finish this master’s degree, I plan on completing a class that explores the software used to run my interactive white board.  I would also like to research grants that could be used towards tablets or iPads in the art room.  I have found so many great art technology tools I would love to share with my students. I have never written a grant but understand that they are time consuming.  My school has an excellent Parent Teacher Organization with multiple fundraisers that might be a more accessible resource.

The first week of this class, I completed a checklist evaluating how often my teaching practices support twenty-first century skills as well as developing technology skills.  Most of my checks were in the “sometimes” column.  I plan on filling out this checklist again in one year.  After the skills I have developed and the resources I have discovered in this course, I hope to have more in the often column! 

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Skills for the 21^st century.[Webcast]. The changing work environment (part one). Baltimore, MD Dr. David Thornburg.