I have found this course to be extremely beneficial. Because the path that brought me to the classroom was not the traditional path, I have not had many education courses. In the past, I have tried to incorporate technology because it seem really interesting, however, it was not relevant to the course and the students complained. This left me discouraged and doubting whether I would attempt to integrate technology again. However, through this course’s content and assignments, I have learned how to properly assess technology for use in the classroom and how to incorporate the technology so the students will see it as relevant and benefit from its addition to the course. In upcoming semesters, this knowledge will help me revise my face-to-face courses and my online courses.
Two major lessons I learned from this course was how to assess potential technology for the classroom and to not fear new technology. In the textbook, the chapters that cover the plethora of options for integrating technology in the classroom offered evaluation rubrics to help decide if the technology in question really fits what you need in your classroom. In my example I mentioned above, I had asked my student to produce a 10 minute video as a final product for a group research project they worked the entire course on. I left the instructions for this project fairly vague because I wanted to see how creative the students could get with their video. What ended up happening that was one student spent most of the group research time developing the movie and not benefitting from the research. There was too much of a learning curve for the students to overcome while also trying to learn the subject matter I was teaching. The students did create really good videos, however, I had to remind myself that my class is an immunology course, not a movie-making course. If I had used one of these rubrics to think through all of the aspects of that assignment, I might have come to that conclusion before I implemented the project. This may seem a simple lesson to learn, however, I can see how it will save my students and myself many semesters of frustration! The other lesson that I will hold on to from this course, is to not be afraid of new technology. Making videos and podcasts of my lectures seemed extremely daunting to me before I actually did it for this course. There is a lot of work to do before you actually start recording (making a script), but the actual recording and editing is not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. The learning tools provided in this course were very useful and abundant. One of the standards we covered in our blogfolio mentioned presenting the information in several different formats in order to accommodate as many learning styles as possible. Because I have a preference for visual and kinesthetic learning, I mainly used the written and interactive learning tools. Therefore, I cannot say that I used all of the learning tools provided, but I was really grateful for the ones that I did use. I will discuss ach of the learning tools in detail to explain why I did or did not use them. The blog was a new technology for me to work with. I have read plenty of blogs, but I have never created one. I like this tool because it forced me to think about content of the course with enough detail that I could articulate my thoughts to others. I also thought the requirement to read my classmates’ blogs was useful. This allowed me to see where my opinions and thoughts differed with those of my classmates. We had some really good discussions this summer! While trying to determine if this format would be better or worse than a discussion board for use in my classes, I am drawn to the fact that this blog belongs to me. I teach a laboratory management course, where I could see the potential of using a blog instead of a Blackboard journal because the students will continue to have access to the blog after the course is over. The podcast clips are one of the learning tools that I did not use. This goes back to my preferred learning style. I would rather read, make notes, and highlight in my book than listen to a lecture. I think this might have been different if I were commuting up to Hattiesburg everyday this summer, like I do during the fall and spring. The use of the podcast then would serve to use my time efficiently, more than learning in my preferred style. However, because I do know that many of my students also commute to school and that many of my students may be aural learners, I do intend to incorporate podcasts into my courses in the future! I did watch several of the video clips, especially when they were explaining how to use one of the tools we were learning about. I found being able to watch someone perform a task was very useful. The videos met my visual learning preference. I already use a good deal of videos in my courses. I have heard it said that many teachers will teach the way they prefer to learn. I suppose I am guilty of that in this case! However, some of the hands-on projects we did have shown me ways of how to use videos in my course more effectively. I am planning on using some of those tools in the future. The hands-on projects were the most useful learning tool in this course. Because I am a kinesthetic learner, I prefer to learn by doing. These projects gave me an opportunity to work with tools that I have never worked with before. These tools make it so easy to teach to every learning style and to make online learning more dynamic. My students will be seeing some of these tools in this fall semester! The tools that I liked the most were the Scoop.It! page and the Edpuzzle videos. The Scoop.It! page allows the instructor to keep their students up to date with current events and research in the content field. This also can demonstrate to the students which resources are reliable. The Edpuzzle video tool will allow me to make sure that the students are learning something from the videos that I use in my courses. I feel the same way about the e-portfolio as I do about the blogs, I like that I have a record of what I have accomplished in this course somewhere other than on Blackboard. I have also noticed that I worry a little more about the quality of what I write when I know that it will be put on a website for the world to see and not just tucked away on Blackboard. I think this natural response could entice an otherwise underperforming student to put forth more effort in their written responses. I will be incorporating e-portfolios in my laboratory management course in the future. I can see myself using many of these technologies in my courses. Especially the ones that just add a new perspective to my already developed content. I think being willing to try new technologies is one of my strong points. I am probably more willing to try new technologies because the use of new technologies come easily to me. It does not usually take me very long to figure out how to use a new program or tool. However, I can see myself resisting the new technologies that will require a lot of prep time. For example, writing the script for a podcast. I see the value of the podcast, but I am not sure I will have the time to make them for all of my lectures. I may just do a few lectures each semester, until I have them all recorded. In the future, I would like to learn how to incorporate more kinesthetic learning tools in a content heavy online course. Many of our students are kinesthetic learners and in my face-to-face Immunology course we have a laboratory component that allows those learners to get hands-on with the content. However, I do not have this option in my online courses. I have looked for virtual immunology labs, but have not found one. I would like to learn how to develop a virtual lab or other ways to incorporate this learning style into my online courses.
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AuthorI'm Mary Warden, a graduate student at the University of Southern Mississippi. I am currently working on my PhD in Instructional Technology and Design. Please read my self introduction to learn a little more about me! BlogrollXavier Agee
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