Course-Reflections-5364

1. Critically reflect upon the knowledge you gained from the assignment. **
 * Self –Assessment

From the assignments I learned a lot about collaboration with others. Being able to trust them to complete different parts of the assignment in the scenario was difficult for me because I am used to working by myself. Working with my group helped me to see that other view points can spark new ideas and make the ideas that I have that much better. I also gain experience creating different projects through this course a online book, for example can help show students something in a different way. I can also show and have student create these books to help understand different topics.


 * 2. Critically reflect upon the relationship between any new information you gained from the assignment with old information you previously held to be true. **

“As teachers, we are taught to believe that learning takes place in a quiet and orderly setting. Activities in which students are taking an active role and sharing information with each other make for noisy classrooms. To an outsider, the classroom may appear to be in chaos. This does not mean students are not learning (Sprague & Dede, 1999).” When I was growing up in school this was how I was taught but through different classes like this one I have come to realize that a noise classroom doesn’t mean a classroom where learning is not happening. Creating lessons using the UDL process it has shown me places where I need to add different things and what things I need to look at to make sure the lesson is done in the correct way. Creating the team site is something that I believe can benefit my classes as a whole being able to allow students to create different project though Google docs and have them be able to post to a site is a great way to share and display student work.


 * 3. How did the relationship between the old and new information you learned affect your personal experience with the assignment? **

“Successful learning experiences challenge and support each learner appropriately and adjust as the learner changes over time (Rose & Meyer, 2002).” One cannot just rely on information you have relied on for years. Things change, technology changes and people don’t always think the same. Though this class and others like it I have realized the importance of making sure that I change with the times and am always finding ways to update my lessons. Yes it is a challenge to keep changing, but if I want to make an impact on my students I need to make the changes and take on the challenges.


 * Learn as a Learner **
 * 1. Critically reflect upon your approach and strategies used in completing the assignment.

** “People attribute success to different sources: to their own innate abilities, to the assistance of others, to luck, and to effort (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).” There are many ways I could have used to complete the assignments given but I truly like to think that I put forth a lot of effort through this process. Working with people that do not live around me, making sure every week that everyone was on the same page, and making sure we got everything turned in on time was a lot of effort on my part. Just because it was a lot of effort doesn’t mean that it was bad for me, in fact, it helped me to see that my students need to see me putting forth this effort because if they see me doing it chances are they will as well. I wanted to put my best foot forward when completing these tasks, so I made sure that everything was covered as I was working on my assignments.


 * 2. Critically reflect upon how you learn as a learner and how you assess your own performance in completing the assignment(s). **

I learn with hands on activities and through this class I have had my hands on all of the different assignments. It is important for me to see the work and to actually create, post, and review the work created. I also need to be able to transfer this into my classroom and in different professional development training that I conduct. Working on completing these assignments has taught me a lot and I believe that I have completed them correctly and will be able to use them in other things I do.


 * 3. How did your learning and interaction with colleagues (such as discussion forum, web conferences, wiki and blog participation, etc.) affect the results of your performance?

** I think this interaction with others has helped the products that I developed in this course. Being able to bounce ideas off of other people and seeing feed back from the discussion boards has helped me grow as a learner. Even though my group members are from all over Texas they were still able to help me create different parts of our website and help solve the problem in our scenario. Again I think these interactions have been a great help in my performance in this class.

1. Critically reflect upon what you gained about learning and how you learn that will impact your future learning.
 * Lifelong Learning Skills

** “As teachers, understanding the pattern of strengths and weaknesses within a learner's recognition networks can help us individualize the kind of challenge and support we provide, thus maximizing every student's opportunity to learn (Rose & Meyer, 2002).” As Rose and Meyer say it is very important to know your students strengths and weakness this way you will better maximize their learning. Knowing this using technology, collaborative groups, and whatever it takes to get students involved and engaged in the lesson is key. Teachers need to challenge students at every level but they also need to support them. I learn through hands on activities and I can show student to learn this way, however I know that there are many different types of learning styles and it will be important for me to change up the way I teach my lessons. No two students thing exactly alike so it is important that I vary my lessons to reach as many students as possible.


 * 2. How will your past interactions and collaborations with colleagues impact your future learning experiences? **

Past interaction with colleagues always impact my learn experience because they have good ideas that can be used. Some teachers have been doing this for years and it is important that you lesson to them. If you are a new teacher and you know how to use technology to enhance your lessons what better way to do this by teaming up with a teacher who has been doing this for years. With the two of you working together I can just imagine the lessons and interactions with students that could come from this. It is very important to me to collaborate with other professionals to gain new and exciting ideas and I will continue to do so and use different ideas to better my classroom.


 * 3. As a lifelong learner, what questions or issues challenge you and are worthy of future research or investigation? **

As a life long learner technology is always going to be at the center of different questions. How will technology be used in the future in the classrooms? Will virtual classrooms take the place of traditional classrooms? What ways can I use technology to better my classroom? What are some free technologies I can use right now to help my classroom? These are question as a lifelong learner that I think are very important and once I will seek to answer as I go through my process of learning.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M. & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. Chapter 2, Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervisor and Curriculum Development. Retrieved from The Center of Applied Special Technology web site on March 16, 2011, from []

Sprague, D. & Dede, C. (1999). If I teach this way, Am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom. Leading and Learning, 27(1). Retrieved February 24, 2011 from International Society for Technology in Education at []