I didn't know what to expect when I started my first Masters course, Teaching for Understanding with Technology. Reflecting on CEP 810, my first online course, I am extremly happy with the skills I gained. I have increased my understanding of what technology can mean for my teaching, how it can transform my lessons, and how it can prepare my students as 21st century learners.
I have grown in many ways. Since I started teaching nearly three years ago I wanted to create a blog. Now I have one that I will continue to use as I grow professionally. I have become a more literate person by following RSS feeds on education, technology, news and other topics that interests me. And I have crafted my own personal learning network, mastering social media and online collaboration tools.
Those areas of growth are more than I expected to learn before I began CEP 810, but that's not all. Because of this course I have now mastered Google applications like Google Calendar, Google Reader and Google Docs. These and other things I learned in this course have practical and immediate applications to my classroom.
Online sessions, articles and tutorials supported my learning. What limited my growth was my own situation and my schedule. I have been very busy with my job and it was slow adjusting to taking a course online. Rather than get frustrated in give up, I stuck with it, learning about things like digital citizenship and creating a special interest group propsal on Twitter, an application I would have never used before. I feel particularly happy with my Personal Technology Plan. I feel it represents where I have come from and where I hope to go.
I have met the goals of my personal growth plan. In the future I hope to learn more about how to apply what I have learned to my classroom. I want to encorporate blogs and online document storage in my classroom, and create a web presence for myself, connecting me with my students and their families. The most important thing I have learned is that its important to have a vision for technology in your classroom. After CEP 810 I think I have a good idea what that vision might be. I hope to cultivate that idea and look forward to seeing it grow.
These last four days (Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) were dedicated to completely retooling the school I work at. It was my first weekend work retreat, and hopefully the long hours of work will pay off. I envision a Blanche Kelso Bruce Academy West 2.0. Much like Web 2.0, it will be more collaborative, with open information sharing and a user (student) centered design. I have a feeling a lot of what I learned in CEP 810 will come in handy.
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