Reflection

Reflection

My Views on Technology

My views of using technology in education have not changed through the reading, researching, and learning in this course. I have always thought that it is important to include lots of technology into the classroom in order to best prepare my 21st century learners for their futures. In my first blog post, I shared that over half of my students will have future careers in jobs that do not yet exist. I still believe that teaching students how to appropriately, safely, and effectively use technology at a young age will help them to be successful in those careers. What has changed throughout this course is my knowledge on the tools that I can use in the classroom with my students to engage them in digital safety work as well as academic work tied to Common Core standards that is taught or reinforced with technology. Some of these resources were brand new to me and others I had heard about but forgotten about. I am excited to continue to use Wakelets to keep track of all the amazing resources that are out there! I have already shared that tool with my grade-level team. Some of my favorite new (or like-new) resources that were brought up in this course are: Padlet, Wakelet, Remind, ThingLink, Popplet, PicCollage, Chatter Pix, Book Creator, TinyWow, and Twitter (which I have started using to find even more amazing Ed Tech resources). At the start of this 8-week journey, I shared an animated image that represented my feelings towards the upcoming 8 weeks. I was ready to learn! 

Image Source: Tenor

Now that this 8-week journey has come to an end, I feel just as invigorated but in a new way. Now, I am excited to implement all of the resources, tools, and knowledge that I have gained from this course into my classroom!

Image Source: Tenor

Stand-Out Topics

I really loved learning about “digital tattoos” and the important difference in that phrase versus “digital footprint”. I think the permanence of what you post is the most important lesson that I need to teach my young students about technology. I loved learning the new phrase “digital tattoo” and I plan on using that phrase in my classroom. With Digital Citizenship Week approaching next week, there is no better time to start teach this concept to my students. I also want to share this knowledge with my school’s technology teacher because I believe that all teachers in our school should have a professional development about data mines and digital tattoos so that we can make sure all students leave our elementary school with a solid understanding that what they post matters, and what they post online is public for all to see, permanently. I am grateful that the coursework done in this program has opened my eyes to the importance of teaching my students this lesson!