When I began my first class towards my Master’s degree, Concepts of Educational Technology, I was not quite sure what to expect and a little anxious about the unknown. I knew I wanted to pursue my Master’s degree in a concentration in which I would learn as well as enjoy. To be honest, I truly enjoy technology more than I have ever in the past. I set out to learn more knowledge about technology, technology assessments, and digital tools and how they can be utilized in the educational setting. As I placed myself in a position to pursue and learn all about technology satisfies two components of my vision: 1) learning all that I can so that I can help others and eventually feel confident in teaching the concepts to 21st Century learners, and 2) overcoming my fears and anxiety about technology which will build my confidence to teach others. I gained knowledge and thoroughly enjoyed creating and using the different tools such as wikis, blogs, animoto and wordle.
The experience that I gained through this course is relevant to my work as a Resource/Special Education Teacher’s Aid. Although I am a certified teacher I hold an Aide’s position that limits me on what I can achieve in preparation of lessons plans. However, I have already introduced my Lead Teacher to many of the concepts and tools that I learned in this course. My Lead Teacher is very interested in what I have introduced to her and has incorporated the tools into her lesson plans. I have collaborated with other teachers about our 21st Century Learners and the much needed changes to satisfy and be successful with student engagement. To experience more and learn additional information, I am looking forward to a Technology workshop regarding 21st Century Learners being held in my area this summer. Learning about our campus technology ratings and the Star chart gave me insight into technology areas that need to be addressed at our campus.
I do not think there were any specific outcomes that I did not achieve on completion of this course. I believe I have accomplished my expected outcome and goals of this course. I set out to learn more about technology and how I can implement my knowledge in the classroom. I value the information and experience I have gained from this course. I can see myself using the information in my current job position as well as sharing the information with fellow teachers and staff. Now that I have the information readily available and well organized, I can easily refer to the information as needed. I did experience some challenges initially and along the way of completing the course. Organizing my time to get assignments completed on time and setting up the new computer I purchased with the needed software were the challenges I faced. I look forward to future courses and feel confident in using the tools I learned from this first course.
I believe I was successful in carrying out the course assignments and meeting the required deadlines but it was not without challenges. I felt overwhelmed as I dug through the first week’s assignment. In my opinion, the first week was the toughest as the content was completely new to me. I was nervous, to say the least, about the time commitment and organization of the course. I was worried that I was not going to complete the assignment on time as I struggled with organizing the amount of work that was expected. I found it difficult finding that balance between my home life, full time work responsibilities and Master program requirements. I realized very quickly that to get through the first course and remaining courses that I would need to polish up on my time management skills. As the weeks passed, my anxiety diminished little by little. I was able to manage assignment deadlines and requirements with a little more ease. I was determined to be successful. I have a better understanding of how I can organize my time and schedule to complete assignments on time.
I have learned quite a bit from this course, about myself and my technology capabilities. I’ve learned I have underestimated my technology experience as well as the capability I possess in learning new technology concepts and tools. I have gained confidence in my ability to maneuver through technology programs with the tools I have learned and share what I have learned with others. My Lead Teacher has even commented on my confidence level when applying the technology tools I have learned with our students. She too, has applied some of the technology tools in her lesson planning. My attitude has changed with technology in that I am more accepting of new challenges rather than shy away from something I did not think I could do. It helped me to develop goals for myself throughout this course and built up the confidence as I crossed the finish line. I needed to strive to be an effective Technology Leader. I will continue and look forward to taking the steps, strive and grow towards becoming an effective Technology Leader.
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