EdTech 541: Final Reflection and Self-Assessment

Part One: Final Course Reflection

Image source: Flickr ("Computer" by Guudmorning!)

This course has taught me how to look at one discipline (5^th grade science, in this case) through a variety of lenses and from a variety of angles. There are a plethora of opportunities to teach students technology skills via content area knowledge.  Most of these technologies make learning more meaningful, efficient, and practical than it might have otherwise be in the absence of technology.

Through this course I learned many resources to use (including where to find valuable resources) to present science material using social media, internet simulations, eBooks, Webquests, primary sources, hypermedia, interactive presentations, and other technology-driven teaching methods.  I also learned how to consider the relative advantage of using a particular technology before blindly adopting a new method. The benefits of its use should outweigh the extra time, effort, and materials required.  I also learned to refine my philosophy surrounding technology integration by writing a vision statement that will help shape my future endeavors in this arena.

Theory guided development of the projects and assignments I created in that I had to pay close attention to the abilities, attitudes, background knowledge, and technological expertise of my students.  Behaviorist or Instructivist teaching methods were appropriate for new tools and difficult or complex information.  These helped with remediation, skill fluency, and review. However, as much as possible, I embraced the Constructivist theory in my projects, in that they expected students to synthesize and create things using a variety of resources.  Constructivist approaches in my projects include Scaffolding, Discovery Learning, and Social Activism Theory, by which students create meaning and social relevance from working together on collaborative hands-on tasks.  Constructivist theory applied to technology integration supports the aims of increasing student motivation, developing information literacy skills, providing unusual and engaging resources, and reducing students’ cognitive load.  This course also helped me learn to explicitly or implicitly utilize the TIP (Technology Integration Planning) model for selecting strategies and materials.  I understand the rationale and strategy for using Tech-PACK to assess my own technological pedagogical content knowledge before planning a technology integration opportunity.  At the end of the day, the technologies chosen must work for me and the students, not despite us.

My coursework in this class demonstrates mastery of any of the AECT standards of Design, Development, and Utilization.  For more specific information, please review my Standards page on my course website: http://ericafuhry-edtech541.weebly.com/standards.html

I have grown professionally in this course by not only thinking reflectively about current topics in educational technology, but by supporting my opinions with insightful references (both social media and peer-reviewed literature).  I am very proud of the writing and the creativity of design that I have poured into both my learning log and the final project. The blog entries I have written show the “behind the scenes” aspects to the student-centered projects and artifacts I have created.  The helped me constantly keep the question “Why are we doing this this way?” at the forefront of my mind during the development stage.  I also feel I have grown professionally in the way I embark on a multi-disciplinary unit of instruction.  I believe multi-disciplinary should also mean “multi-media” or “multi-modal” to reflect the power of technology to improve subject-matter integration.  Reflecting on this course, I feel a good lesson should never stand in isolation from other subjects or from the real world. Using fun, relevant and authentic technology tools at the elementary level will help bring topics to life and reach learners in more efficient and effective ways.  As a teacher, I will constantly seek out new resources and determine the relative advantage of incorporating them into my repertoire of teaching methods.

Part Two: Self-Assessment of Blogging Performance

--Instructor Rubric--

Criteria	Outstanding	Proficient	Basic	Below Expectations
Content 70 points	Rich in content, full of thought, insight and synthesis with clear connections to previous or current content and/or to real life situations made with depth and detail. (Note: It is possible that in some blog entries I could’ve gone into more detail of “real life situations” from my own experiences. However in all cases I tried to tie the “theoretical” to the “practical” to show how ideas could be carried out.)	Substantial information, thought, insight and analysis has taken place with some connection to previous or current content and/or to real life situations but lack of depth and detail.	Generally competent in summarizing learning, but information is thin and commonplace with limited connections and vague generalities.	Rudimentary and superficial regurgitation of content with no connections and/or completely off topic.
Readings and Resources 20 points	Readings (from course text) and other resource materials are used to support blog comments. APA style is used to cite references.	There is some reference to readings and other resource material. No or limited use of APA style references.	Little if any reference is made to readings and other course materials.	Readings and resources are not mentioned.
Timeliness 20 points	All required postings are made early in the module to give others time to comment.	All required postings are made but not in time for others to read and respond.	Some or all of the required postings are made, but most are at the last minute without allowing for response time.	Some or all of the required postings are missing.
Responses to Other Students 30 Points	Two or more substantial posts with at least one detailed response made to address another students' post.	One or more satisfactory posts with at least one satisfactory response made to address another students' post.	One satisfactory post with a brief response to another students' post.	One brief post or no post at all and no response to another students' post.

Conclusion: I have truly given my “all” on all assignment and learning log entries and feel I have demonstrated work in the Outstanding category of expectations.  I have made a habit of synthesizing my ideas with depth and detail, including the course text and other resource materials to support my ideas, posting my entries on time, and responding thoughtfully to at least two peers’ posts each week. Suggested Total: 136/140