Final Reflections

I have learned so much in my CEP 811 class!  I feel so much more comfortable using technology to help enhance my lessons and improve student achievement.  By evaluating lessons that others have made and my own using the UDL principals (Universal Design for Learning) I now understand how to incorporate technology in a beneficial way.  I learned that when using technology it is very important to check to make sure everything is up to date and working properly.  You do not want to start a lesson and find out midway that there are broken links.  It is better to check before and make changes instead of having to rethink the lesson when you are in the middle of it.

I have learned some new technologies that I had never even heard of through taking this class.  I really like the STAIR (Stand Alone Instructional Resource) designs we were able to create.  This is a great way to engage students using technology!  They can be used as another form of teaching a particular topic to introduce it or to help enforce it.  I definitely want to explore these more and use them in my classroom when I have one of my own.  I also enjoyed learning more about webpages.  This is something I was already familiar with, but I was not completely comfortable creating one on my own.  WebQuests are another tool I would like to use when I teach.  These are a great way to have students explore and do research on the Internet in a secure environment.  

I had many goals at the beginning of this course and I feel that I have met them.  I wanted to learn new technologies and how to use them to help enhance my lessons to increase student achievement.  It is very important to integrate technology into lessons for the purpose to help with student achievement and engage students.  Technology should not just be used as a filler with no educational benefits.  My new goals are to keep exploring these new technologies I learned and become even more comfortable with them.  I also want to explore more technologies and how they can be used in my teaching.  Lastly, I want to share what I have learned with other teachers that I work with and help them to start using them in their classrooms.  I am going to reach these goals by continuing on taking classes toward my Master's Degree and by meeting with the technology group at my school to share my ideas.

Online Teaching Experiences

WebQuests are a great way to teach all different types of content.  They require students to complete research on a certain topic by following links on the Internet.  You can use them to teach all of the basic subjects in school, such as mathematics, science, reading, writing, and social studies.  They can also integrate multiple subjects in one WebQuest.  They are easy for students to use and help them get used to researching information on the Internet.  The main thing you have to keep in mind when using a WebQuest is to make sure all of the links work.  Since websites are continually changing, it is very important to keep your WebQuest up to date with resources that still exist.

With my students I would want to use a few different pedagogical strategies when teaching with WebQuests.  First of all, students would be active learners by exploring the websites. I would also want to include collaboration.  I think it is very beneficial for students to be able to discuss and work with other students.

In the elementary school some of the online learning technologies would be difficult to use. For instance, students in the lower grades (kindergarten and first) would not be able to create a blog or Wiki site because they do not have the skills yet to makes posts and comment.  In these grades I think it would be great to use online simulations which are more engaging and do not require them to write or read in some cases.

There are so many great ways to teach online.  I am looking forward to being able to incorporate them into my classroom when I have one of my own!

Michigan Merit Curriculum Online Experience Guideline Companion Document