Reflection

Today's technology is constantly changing and for a person or student to be successful, they have to able to use the most current technology. This is why it is very important that today's teachers are using current technology or they are setting their students up to fail. Looking back on my teaching methods, I was not incorporating ample amount of 21st century skills into my lessons.

What I liked best about this class is that it did not just show me how to make or use a wiki, blog or podcast; it made me make one of each. This proved to be very helpful because my school district has shown us and told us how to make them and how to apply them into our classes. Before this class, I never used a blog, wiki or podcast but now I am using wikis and podcasts in my classroom and I am about to start a blog. These applications/skills are all very important for students to know how to use if they want to be successful in the future.

Other than demonstrating how to incorporate these applications in my classroom, this class has shown me that students learn differently than they did many years ago. One example of how students learn different is the fact that they want instant access to everything. The reason why students are like this today is because of the computers, smart phones, and the internet. These students that have grown up with this type of environment (people who have grown up with technology all of their lives) are called digital natives (Prensky 2001).

As teachers, we are always hearing that we have to be teaching 21st century skills in our classrooms. I always knew what 21st century skills were and I thought I was applying them in my classroom. For example, I thought if my lesson had a critical thinking question and had technology in the lesson, I was teaching 21st century skills. After a few weeks in this class, I have come to realize that there is a lot more than just these two skills. A 21st century lesson needs to have critical thinking, problem solving, communication, teamwork, information gathered from technology and leadership (Thronburg 2010). Just two weeks ago I put together a lesson that had all of those skills in it. I broke the students up into groups and they had to make a wiki about rocks and the rock cycle. All of the students that did the wiki had fun and learned a lot. In fact, the students did better overall on the assessment compared to other years past. This shows me that they learned more and had fun doing it. I would have never attempted to do a lesson like this without this class.

This class has inspired me to set goals for myself and my classroom. My first goal for my classroom is to use more technology on a daily basis. I am going to start by making two blogs. The first blog will be a blog that would allow parents and students to ask questions and get feedback. The second blog will be a homework blog where I would post a homework question on Monday and throughout the week we will discuss the question in class. By Friday, the students will have answered the question on the blog. I am also hoping that the questions will spark an online discussion about the question that I posted. Along with the blog, I am going to start using my Smart Slate in my classroom at least three times a week. The students always love when they can interact with the lesson and this makes them pay attention for longer periods of time.
My second goal is to inspire other teachers to incorporate more technology into their lessons. The reason why I have picked this goal is because in my school, we have a lot of technology and not a whole lot of teachers use it. I am going to change this by showing the teachers how easy it is to use certain technology in their classroom like wikis. I am also going to be using more technology in my classroom. This will help push other teachers to use more because they are starting to see me use the technology and how easy it can be. I will also be e-mailing fellow teachers all of the different slate lessons that I make which they can use in their classroom.
Looking back on my list from week one, I would not change any of my answers but as a teacher, I am more confident with certain web 2.0 applications like wikis, blogs and podcasts. I also feel I have a better understanding of how current students learn in today's classroom and how important it is for students to be critical thinkers in today's world. Overall, I am very happy with the growth that I have done over the past seven weeks.

References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore: Author
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5). Use the Proquest Central database, and search using the article’s title.