Reflection

New technologies available in education and in all arenas of life abound. One key for encouraging fellow educators to use and advocate for collaborative and diversified learning tools is share and help train in successful and innovative technology use. I have really enjoyed learning about some amazing emerging technologies that can ignite the imagination of our students in an engaging way. Digital games, online learning modules, and Multi-user virtual environments can be harnessed to give students an internal motivation for learning. I find the Second Life realm a fascinating one and feel that it will only become more prevalent. The use of games to help motivate students and enhance learning and I will continue to add links to games to my learning module that work well with our standards and content. As I reflected on this class, I realized that the learning module that I planned is going to have an immediate impact on my teaching and peer collaboration. I am more comfortable in utilizing Web 2.0 skills as a result of my time at Walden, and I will continue to be diligent in organizing learning experiences at home and at school that challenges the 21st Century student. The use of wiki’s, blogs. Podcasts, glogs and inquiry learning help to stimulate the learning environment and expanding student interest in learning. After creating my own lesson plan, using MUVE as the learning catalyst, I realized that this is a format can organize and help manage learning.
As I evaluate emerging technologies, I will look for sites and applications that give all students equal access information to gain knowledge. I will make my website a vehicle for authentic and active learning in a multimodal learning module. I have already begun to adjust the use of my school website in all of these capabilities, as students and families are already familiar with it.
I plan to use social bookmarking sites and access to my modules to help share with my colleagues and families. Our cohort group will collaborate in person and via the internet with my fellow educators in gifted and regular education. We will have yearlong, monthly meetings and invite speakers and share our experiences and data.
I think the most effective way of encouraging the use of emerging technologies in your school or district wide is to demonstrate the benefits of new technologies for rapid information access and sharing of ideas and tools for learning. Well, this concludes my 36th post. My last one as a student at Walden. I have valued my time in this program and I feel it will serve me well in being a good teacher.I will continue to follow my classmate's rss feeds and after a brief reprieve, I hope to continue to post on this blog. See you soon!