Friday, August 30, 2013

EDLD 5364 Week 1 Reflections

Working in the field of instructional technology I feel that I need to stay up to date with what's happening in education. I teach teachers the uses of technology and how to incorporate it into their daily lessons. What I found was most interesting was the article on social networking technologies (McPheeters, 2009) and his discussion of what he calls "cyborg learning." I was drawn in by his statement that "Learning how to learn will become the new curriculum because what we know will become decreasingly useful as obsolescence becomes as familiar as exhaling." I think he is exactly right. Students today are technology savy. They are constantly on their phones texting, sending and receiving email and doing some type of social networking. We are going to have to step back and let our students use their brains. I also feel that teaching critical thinking early on is essential to this generation.


McPheeters, D. (2009, March). Social Networking Tehnologies in Education, Tech and Learning.
Retrieved February 22, 2011 from
http://www.techlearning.com/article/16250.

Friday, August 16, 2013

EDLD 5366 Week 5 Reflection


Digital Graphics/Desktop Publishing Reflection
 Self- Assessment
As I reflect on the content I learned from EDLD 5366, I would have to say that I learned a tremendous amount of  information. “The most powerful learning often happens when students self-monitor, or reflect.” (Gerstein, 2011). I feel this statement to be true. I learned from posting to the discussion board and reflecting to colleagues' responses. I found the videos as well as the readings helpful.  I enjoyed creating a logo/brand and an animation. I can't wait to share this experience with teachers. I also found the CRAP principals to be informative. I used the principals while creating my logo as well as our group website. I will be taking this knowledge to show teachers the importance of design.
Learn as a Learner
This course allowed me to work in a group. I have to be honest I am not a fan of group work. I did however enjoy working with this group of people. We all had to depend upon each other to complete our task.  We would email often about what we accomplished throughout the week and the status of our individual pages. As soon as we chose our topic I began my part of the assignment right away. I hate waiting on others so I did not want my team to experience that. I feel that our group did a great job working together to create a useful website. I feel our website is full of information and I will be sharing it with teachers as well as parents. 
Lifelong Learning Skills
I feel that writing reflections and posting to blogs enhance my level of understanding. I think it is important to reflect often. Feedback from discussions and the group website activity has helped me as an individual. I enjoy reading what others have to say. I will continue to learn and stay up to date on resourceful resources and do anything to help my teachers as well as my students. I will use this information as a learning tool to strengthen my personal learning and training skills.
 Implementation in the Classroom
Blogs and websites are an excellent way to keep in touch with parents and keep students informed. Teachers at my campus are required to have a website as well as keeping it up to date. I use Moodle throughout the year to have group discussions. I also post to Moodle for my parents to have discussions. I feel the lower grade levels could use their teacher website to click on educational games and resources. Blogs and websites can be very beneficial in a classroom if taught proper procedures.

Gerstein, J. (2011), Where is reflection in the learning process? retrieved from http://usergeneratededucation. wordpress.com/2011/08/16/where-is-reflection-in-the-learning-process/ Feb. 18, 2012.