Reflection

As this class comes to a close, I reflect back at all I learned and how my perspective has changed.  I have realized that our schools are now full of a different breed of students and these digital natives need to be taught a different way.  They need to collaborate, communicate, and use technology.  They need to use resources outside of their classroom and school and become more global.  They desire to become problem solvers which encourages all of us to become teachers of 21st Century skills and let the students become the leaders of the classroom.

When I began this class I was scared to blog, had never created a podcast, and had never heard of wikis-I thought wikipedia was a catchy name and had no clue there was a whole world of wikis that could be created by anyone!  Now, I have created a blog for this class and at school for my students.  I have created a podcast and my students are working on their own as we speak.  I have participated in a wiki and my students will be working on one in the near future for their unit on Anne Frank.  I plan to continue my learning of different technology resources and ideas for the classroom by researching and collaborating.

One of the main obstacles in our school is not enough technology.  I plan to make my classroom 1:1 ipads or laptops.  I am hoping to accomplish this through grants.  I am beginning to research various grants so that I can get the technology required to match my goals and dreams for my classroom and students.  Another obstacle is that our district is very strict on what our students can and can't do.  They can only use one specific place to blog where only their classmates can see it.  They can not participate or publish any of their work worldwide.  I am going to gather information and data and request that they loosen the strings a little.  I understand and fully support the need for safety.  I am just hoping that they are not aware that there are many safe alternatives to blogs, wikis, and publishing work of students.

This has by far been my favorite class in the program as it has given me useful information that I can take to my classroom and the confidence to enter a new student-led classroom.