End of Integrating Technology Course

I have just finished a course at Walden University called Integrating Technology in the Classroom. In fact, the reason I have this blog is because one of the course requirements was to create a blog and use it for different purposes in the class.
When I originally decided to work toward my masters in education technology, the driving force behind that decision what the enjoyment and success I got from using a Promethean Board in class. I wanted to get more ideas for what technologies I could use in class to supplement my teaching and improve my teaching. In the first week of this course, in one of the videos we watched, Dr. David Thornburg discussed the distinction between using technology to do the same things in a different ways and using technology to do different things that you have never done before without technology. The main goal throughout the rest of the course was to look at different online tools such as blogs, wikis and podcast to do different things. I have a few ideas for how I can use some of these online resources in my classes but I am still not at a point where I have a lot of plans for using these online technologies. The main idea that I have taken from this course is that I was really looking at technology in the wrong way. I need to focus more on Dr. Thornburg’s idea of doing different things. I was looking for tools that would make my teaching easier instead of looking for ways to change the way I teach to make my teaching better.

Now that I have this change of focus I feel that I will be better prepared to go into my remaining technology courses. I don’t know exactly what is coming but I am sure that I will continue to grow and continue to change how I teach to better reach my students.

Over the next two years I want to create a student centered technology activity for each unit that I teach. Some of these activities will use online resources and some will hopefully use other technology resources that I will learn about in the future as I continue my courses at Walden University and continue using technology on my own. I would also like to take what I learn and the activities that I create and share them with other teachers in my school and in my district. If my classes are successful using the technologies that I try to implement in class I would love to see other teachers take these same techniques and use them in their classes.