Reflection

Reflection

After completing this course, it has shown me a couple of things. First, it has shown me that many of the things that we do in my classroom are in line with the learning theories we covered in the past seven weeks. It has also shown me many new tools, as well as ways to utilize these tools that I had not done in the past.
As far as being in line with the learning theories we studied, some of the lessons that I use, like the Chicago web quest, fit the constructionist learning theory in which the students learn by building their own artifacts and presenting them to the group. We follow some aspects of the behaviorist learning theory by rewarding the students for successful completion of repetitive skills practice programs, like Education City and Key Skills.
What I have really become more aware of is evaluating the technology as an instructional tool or a learning tool. I recently attended the Illinois Computing Educators conference in St Charles Illinois. I sought out sessions in which technology was used as a learning tool as opposed to an instructional tool and picked up some great ideas for future projects. A couple of the ideas are to have students use screen casting to teach each other shortcuts or techniques they use while working with the programs on our server. The students can also develop pod casts to share some of the knowledge they have gained studying various theme units for the following year’s class to use as a resource. I also would like to incorporate student produced video in a similar manner. Having them develop video versions of stories they are reading to share with their class and classes that follow. These are a few of goals that I would like to attain with my students in the next couple of years. Not only will the students develop technology skills but by reviewing, revising and redoing the content they have learned to present it to others in one of these multimedia formats, they will be building lasting connections to the content in their minds.