Web Conference Reflection

I attended the web conference the evening of Tuesday, 11/22/11. It was a full web conference with many attendees. Some students who arrived late were unable to get on. I appreciated Dr. Abernathy beginning on time. Dr. Abernathy answered questions about week 2’s assignment as well as about the upcoming PSA assignment. She also shared her thoughts and heart on what she hopes we, the students, will achieve through this course. I thought that was really neat to hear. It eased some of my nerves and inhibitions. Attending an online program by nature can be an isolating experience since we are so remote. Through the web conference though, students can connect both with one another and with the instructor. This experience provided an opportunity for us to feel connected and more visible. It also allowed for specific questions to be answered. I left the web conference feeling more at east about the upcoming assignments.

Digital Story - "My Zipline"

Completing this assignment was daunting at first. Coming up with a direction, a theme, and then editing down the material was complex. What began as a seven minute narrative ended up at just under 4 minutes. I simply couldn't figure out what more to delete and still capture the theme within my story. My partner Lesha and I interviewed each other using a word document housed in dropbox. We were both able to access the interview questions and critique each others scripts in this folder. This collaborative process was helpful in editing down ideas and maintaining our focus.

EDLD 5306 Concepts of Technology - End of Course Reflection

When I began this course I hoped to learn about technology in the classroom. This class increased my knowledge of technology in many ways. I learned how to create a Wordle and export it to a pdf and word document. I created an animoto. I have learned about RSS feeds and how to manage my subscriptions via my google reader. All three of these have great applications for the classroom. Allowing us to use these as part of our learning in this class was empowering. In addition, I have also learned about my district and state technology plans and better understand E-Rate and how schools receive funds for technology. My awareness of cyber-bullying has increased dramatically and I now have resources to use with both my campus and parents to help empower how we inform our students about Internet safety. Copyright laws are complicated, but I now understand them better and know where to go for more information. This class has given me an overview with some specifics to help me feel a little more empowered to be a source of reliable information for my campus.

As a dyslexia therapist, understanding how to utilize technology to support my students in the classroom is very important. Creating a blog to support my students and their families is on my action plan now that I know how to do this. Being able to subscribe to RSS feeds and inform my parents, students, and teachers of emerging technologies will be valuable and exciting. So many of my parents would love a blog they can access with resources that provide support for both home and school which they can access 24/7. I have already used Wordle with a few of my students as we identified derivatives from their connected textbooks. The students loved this and were so engaged. They came back the next day and wanted to do it again. It was exciting to see their enthusiasm. I know I have so much to learn and I look forward to it.

In my role as a dyslexia therapist I am not allowed to use much technology with my students because of the delivery method required for our dyslexia curriculum. When I do use technology I have to sneak it in. This is frustrating for me because I see so many ways that technology can benefit our students. My biggest frustration is that students are not provided with direct instruction in how to use technological tools before they are given to them. Then when the students become frustrated or the technology does not appear to support the student the way it was intended, the technology is discarded. My goal is that in learning about technology I will be better able to provide instructional support and education for both my students and campus teachers. I am truly excited to learn as much as I can to help my students level the academic playing field they encounter daily.

Overall I was successful in completing the course assignments. Many times, I wish I had had more time to reflect on an article or journal we read. There were a couple of weeks where I felt the workload was simply overwhelming and I actually wondered what the purpose of that many assignments could be. There was no way a person could complete them and truly remember what was read or reflected upon. I disagree with activities that seem purposeless in those situations. I was unable to participate in the required podcasts due to work and family requirements. However, I did take the time to watch them both and completed the reflection assignment, but was not given any points for that. That was discouraging to have invested those additional hours in something and not be given even partial credit for that work. Finding a way to balance the rigorous time requirements of these classes with family and work is challenging to say the least.

In the first week of this class we took a number of personal and technological inventories. I learned that as an Idealist, I am a positive, reflective and introspective person. I enjoy quality relationships and I am passionate about inspiring and empowering others. My top three intelligences are music, linguistic and intrapersonal. My linguistic skills suit me very well for an online course that requires as much writing as this course does. I’m glad I enjoy written reflection. I have communication and coaching strengths that help me in my current position. However, I need to develop my skills in the area of delegation and budgeting. I hope that my experiences over the next 15 months will provide me with opportunities to flex those weaker skills. Technologically, I have a number of strengths when it comes to basic Microsoft Office knowledge, Internet navigation, and some hardware knowledge. I am excited to grow in the areas of technology integration, building on what my students already know and finding more ways to utilize technology to support and engage my students with their learning.