EDLD5364FinalAssessment

 1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned? When I began this course, I expected to design and implement some strategies for teaching with technology, but I actually learned much more than that. I am used to incorporating technology into my lessons, but this project allowed me to experience that goal on a much larger scale and envision how technology can be integrated into every core subject. It also allowed me to experience some different strategies that are required for teaching at the elementary level. Finally this class helped me learn the benefits of cooperative learning and develop the communication, time management, and organizational skills necessary for working with a group of people across the state of Texas. By collaborating with a group of teachers online, we were able to improve our teaching methods and find ways to help a diverse group of students learn in the classroom. 
 * Course Reflection Prompts **

2. To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?  As teachers learn to incorporate technology, they need time to process new skills and think creatively about implementation. I have discovered with every course that I complete, I gather those ideas that I immediately want to try out in my own classroom. In fact, just this week, I incorporated the fan fiction website mentioned in the James Paul Gee video as a choice for my semester exam essay. My students enjoyed reading what other students had written about To Kill a Mockingbird and adding their own stories to the list. In my classes, I constantly struggle to find new ways to teach students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities. This course gave me exposure to the UDL website and CAST book builder software which will be invaluable to me as I expand my choices for presenting information and evaluating my students’ successes. Additionally, the information about the affective network was helpful to me as I will continue trying to encourage many of my at-risk students who are bored with school. My goal is to give them different choices for projects that tap into their creative strengths and encourage problem solving instead of reminding them of their all-too-often failures with traditional pen and paper tasks.  3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? I wish that we would have had an opportunity to put our unit plan into action. I would have liked to see the students exploring the UDL books that we created, testing out different software options for their presentations, and collaborating with students across different districts in Texas. I would also like to know if the professional development activities we assigned to the teacher were effective in at least giving him/her an overview of the possibilites for application in the classroom. An important component for the learning process is feedback, and if we had hands-on experience, we would know for sure which ideas would and would not work in the classroom. Another challenge to achieving the outcomes was the group’s choice to focus on 5th grade science. Science and math are both weak areas for me, and I don’t remember much about elementary school, so as I worked on designing my UDL lesson, I continually had to make revisions to keep the content applicable to a ten-year-old. 

4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? I believe I was successful in completing the course assignments. For the first two weeks, I was somewhat confused about how to solve the scenario that we were given, but after we wrote our individual UDL lessons in week 3, I began to see how each group members’ part addressed the required components. The most helpful part was our weekly chat group discussions. We collaborated by contributing our ideas simultaneously to the Google doc and Google wiki site. Each group member shared her own expertise of a core content area and different technologies which allowed us the opportunity to meet the criteria of using technology to teach a diverse group of learners. 

5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? Even though we named just one group leader, each of us took on a leadership role at some point in the process. In week 2, I took the initiative to investigate the Google site, and I set that up for our group as well as transferring much of the content from our Google documents. Other group members spent a lot of time improving the overall appearance of our website, adding ideas, and organizing the navigation for the site. Since last January, I feel that my leadership skills have increased rapidly, and those skills have transferred to my work, as well. Beginning this fall, I added several responsibilities including accepting the position of English III team leader, iSupport team member, and district technology committee member. Working in collaborative groups through this course and others has given me the confidence to share my ideas about technology with other teachers and encourage them by providing just-in-time training whenever possible. Earlier this week, I heard the great news that I am one of 18 teachers on my campus to receive a rather large technology grant for my classroom, and I am excited about continuing to share ideas and strategies for the use of technology through a personal learning network in the spring. What a difference a year has made! I am positive that in this past year, I have learned more about teaching and the importance of technology than I ever thought possible. I am excited about the challenges and rewards that 2010 will bring.