my third blog entry

This class has given me a wealth of great resources which I am excited to explore further on my own time and probably implement in my classroom. It has also given me some basic ideas about what technology can accomplish in my classroom to improve education and engage students. In terms of the project, I learned that webquests can be a very valuable tool to vary instruction and expose students to new media, giving them creative ways to show what they've learned. I'm sure I will do more webquests after this looking for areas in my current curriculum that can use more enrichment and student ownership. This will be especially important as my school moves toward a 1:1 program.

The types of assignments and overall structure of this course also provided a good example of the variety of ways to conduct a class using technology resources - blogs, moodle, google docs, etc. While there are obvious differences between high school and graduate level courses, there are still many ways the way this class was taught could be applied to lower levels of education. In terms of questions that remain, I suppose I hope to learn more about the actual ways technology integration can provide better education, not just new, or novel education. I know that it can improve teaching and learning, but I suppose I'm preparing myself for some of my fellow teachers not being convinced of that. That feeds into what I see as my role among my colleagues where I teach. I do hope to support my colleagues efforts to integrate more technology, provide tips and advice, listen to their concerns, and share my knowledge. I enjoy this prospect, and am generally excited to share all that I've learned with my students as well as my fellow teachers.

I also know that I may some day be someone who resists all the changes technology brings (like some of my colleagues are today). However, by keeping up to date on new ideas and continuing to push myself toward better instruction that empowers students and gives them ownership of their own education, I hope to never be shut off to the new just because I'm comfortable with the way things have been done.