EDLD 5311 Course Reflections

As I started the first class towards my Master's degree, Concepts of Educational Technology, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had been putting off going back to school for a while, so I was really just hoping I would be able to make it through the first course.  While working as a full time teacher, I was nervous about the time the course work would require.  As each week passed, my fears eased a little bit and I adjusted to the assignments, deadlines, and requirements of this course work.  The occasional thought that this was just too much to handle still enters my mind from time to time.  With the technology aspect of the course, I expected to learn more about technology and digital tools, and how to use them in an educational setting.  I gained experience by using many different tools, such as blogs, wikis, wordle, and animoto to communicate information with others.

The experiences that I have obtained from this course are relevant to the work that I do as a fourth grade teacher.  Being a classroom teacher, I have incorporated many of the tools that I used in this course into my classroom and into my lesson planning. I have also shared many ideas and suggestions with colleagues on my campus.  Learning about our campus technology ratings and the Star chart has given me insight into the technological areas that need to be addressed on our campus. The weekly readings provided information and knowledge about ethics, safety and copyright laws, which I have used when teaching my classroom students about Internet safety and also when creating assignments.  I have made strides to find a balance between teaching, family, and school over the past five weeks.  The course work has forced me to organize my time wisely, and make adjustments to meet all of the requirements of my time. 

I do not believe that there were any specific outcomes that I did not achieve upon completion of this course.  I accomplished what I set out to achieve when I began the course, to gain more knowledge about technology, technology assessments, and digital tools, and their use in an educational setting.  I know that I will probably need to go back periodically and review the weekly assignments, just to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of the material covered in this course.  I also need to refresh my knowledge so that I can be confident when discussing and sharing the information I learned with other individuals and groups.  This course challenged me to continually improve my use of technology.  With using webcams, group video chats, and other forms of communication, I have increased my sense of comfort with using these different tools.  This was one of my personal goals during this course. 

I was successful in completing the assignments and meeting the required deadlines. To be honest, when I looked at the first week’s assignment, I was worried that I would have trouble finishing in the required time frame. There were a lot of requirements contained in the written assignments, but I discovered that for me it was all about organization and scheduling my time wisely. Once I realized that I was capable of doing the work, I was able to focus on creating a schedule that would blend my work load and classwork. Taking a class online is quite a bit different that taking a course on a college campus, and requires a lot of self motivation. As far as actual assignments, I found I enjoyed creating both the blog and the wiki, and creating the animoto video about myself.  I have use the animoto site to create other videos to show to people.

I have learned quite a bit from this course, both about myself and about my abilities.  I have learned that I have more confidence in myself then I thought I did to take on something new.  I have also discovered leadership qualities that I did not know that I had.   I have stepped outside of my comfort zone in a few situations.   I took the first steps to discovering the possibility of becoming a principal or some other form of administrator.  There have been several colleagues that have asked me when I would pursue this leadership role.  I now have an answer for them now.  I have reassured my technological abilities and found areas for growth.  I really need to take ownership of what I know and enjoy sharing my knowledge with others.  I also need to ask specific questions about technological matters that I do not know about, so that I am always increasing my knowledge.