Course Reflections
TE670 Teacher Research & Inquiry
I took TE670 during the fall of 2010. I started taking classes before the cohort started so this was my first course in the program. This was an action research course. We learned how to complete research and this included using the library resources online. This would be valuable information for later courses. My action research project was about using online games to increase basic fact knowledge. This course was challenging for me because the project was designed to be implemented in another course. However, I did not have to take the other course, so my project was just theoretical. With that being said, this course taught me many valuable research skills that I applied to other courses.
ET605 Introduction to Educational Technology
I took ET605 during the spring of 2011. This was my second course before I joined the cohort. In this course, I learned how to use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Most of this course refreshed my memory from what I had learned in high school. We also learned how to create webpages using html. I had used html before but didn't remember everything when taking this course. I enjoyed being able to create webpages again and this information was useful for later courses.
ET610 Curricular Applications of Technology
ET610 was my first course with the cohort during summer of 2011. I enjoyed this course because I learned about many different resources to use with my students. We were able to develop lessons around our individual curriculums. My favorite part of this course was sharing different Web2.0 tools with each other. It was useful to see what other teachers were using with their students. This was important to my internship because I liked being able to share resources and tips. I made sure my internship involved sharing resources and ideas with each other.
AD662 Leadership, Supervision, and Staff Development
I also took AD662 during the summer of 2011. This course had less of a focus on technology and more of a focus on leadership. We learned about different leadership styles and how this is important when leading professional development. We developed our own personal supervisory platform and analyzed what was important to us. Reflection is very important to me and I utilized this skill throughout my internship.
ED608 Educational Innovations
I took ED608 during the winter of 2011. The main focus of this course was on reform. We discussed why reforms are important for education and that it usually takes awhile before seeing results from the reforms. As a technology leader, this is important to remember because new programs are not going to show results right away. It is important to not give up and continue the program while waiting to see results. I completed a project about the Common Core. This was the first time I was introduced to this, so I had some background knowledge when learning about this in my school.
ET680 The Role of the Technology Leader
ET680 took place during the spring of 2012. This course did a wonderful job of preparing me for my internship. We learned how to plan for a major change in the school building regarding technology use. We also explored funding resources to help with the plan. Issues such as the AUP and cyberbullying were discussed. I learned the importance of using an AUP that is easy to understand, both on the teacher and student level. This resulted in me creating new documents, a primary and intermediate version, for my school. Out of all the courses in the program, this one prepared me the most for being a technology leader in my school.
ET631 Distance Education
ET631 was the first of three courses during the summer of 2012. In this course, we learned how to develop programs of study for students using the Internet. This course used a hybrid model of distance learning and face-to-face learning as we met in person a few times and the majority of the course was online. It was a good model to use when creating a distance education program. We designed a program that implements distance education. Our program was for Home and Hospital students who could not physically attend school. We had to think of the challenges that we would need to overcome in order to properly implement this program. This course prepares a technology leader by discussing issues that could happen when designing distance education programs.
ET641 Universal Design for Learning
I took ET641 during the summer of 2012. This course introduced me to some new technologies. Class was conducted using a SMART board, which my school just purchased at the end of the 2012-2013 school year. Since I had experience using the SMART board in this course, I was seen as an expert in my building and provided help and support to teachers who asked. This course also helped me design lessons to help special ed students in my classes. I usually have at least one special ed student in my class so learning ways to differentiate instruction using technology was very helpful. We created a unit plan with many different UDL features that I was able to use with my fifth graders in the fall of 2012. It is important for technology leaders to understand different technologies to support the learning of every child, including special ed students. This course prepared me for that.
ET620 Multimedia Design in the Classroom
ET620 was the final course during the summer of 2012. I enjoyed the various projects we completed in ET620. It was very hands-on and I used a few of the projects with my students. We learned how to create PowerPoint presentations using VBA. This came easy to me and I helped many of my peers learn how to write some of the code. The version of Microsoft Office that our school system currently uses does not support VBA. I wanted to use my division adventures PowerPoint with my students, but I look forward to it in the future if we upgrade to a newer version of Microsoft Office. We also learned how to create videos using flip cameras and iMovie. My group made a video about idioms and I used this with my fifth grade class. I showed them the video and had them act out their own idioms. Digital media provides another way of introducing concepts to students and I was very excited to learn how to do this.
ET691 Educational Technology Internship
I started my internship during the fall of 2012 and continued throughout the rest of the school year. I found my internship to be very challenging, but rewarding. I had never run PD sessions before, so I was thankful for that opportunity. It was difficult to tailor the sessions to the wants and needs of the other teachers because we had a variety of teachers. Some were more comfortable with technology than others, but all wanted to learn something from the sessions. Since learning about new technology comes easy to me, I had to practice patience when trying to explain some things to other teachers. This is definitely a positive quality for a technology leader to have.
ET630 Digital Communication in the Classroom
ET630 took place during the spring of 2013 and it introduced me to a few new ideas in technology. We discussed telecollaborative projects and my group planned a project where students interact with students in other classrooms through the use of a blog. Telecollaborative projects provide students a different way to interact with others in order to learn. We also learned how to use CSS to create websites. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the course because it gave me additional ways to style websites. We learned how to critically analyze websites and how to teach our students to do this. Critical analysis of websites is important because students need to understand where the information on the web is coming from and that not all information out there is true or useful to them.
ET690 Educational Technology Seminar
My final course, ET690, took place during the summer of 2013. We read books, had discussions, and wrote papers about different topics in education. The topics were very thought-provoking and I felt like I had more questions than answers at the end of the course. Many of the issues we discussed focused on the negative aspects of technology and this was a different point of view than the rest of the program. It was necessary to discuss these aspects because as a technology leader, these issues cannot be ignored.