Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Technology in Education

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Wow! I can't believe this course is coming to an end. I learned a lot about different technology tools to incorporate in my classroom and share with my colleagues.

One of the main things I learned from this course is the value of being more involved in online educational communities such as Twitter. Being a part of this social media site is beneficial and trendy for teachers to share and gather new ideas. I shied away from sites like this before, but now I am happy to be a part of Twitter.  I learned a lot from the EdChat and from some of the education-related individuals I follow. Learning the idea to have students use slides as exit tickets is a great way to get students more involved in the learning process. I also started using Quizizz in the classroom as a good tool for review. I heard of it before, but since I follow DitchThatTextbook on Twitter, I was motivated to explore it more and use it. My students said they loved it more than Kahoot!

In addition to Twitter, I loved learning about HyperDocs. I found one on Twitter that I modified and am going to use with my students next week about Mesopotamia. There are so many more on Twitter that I can adapt and use. An activity like this coincides perfectly with the goal of blended learning. My students are very tech savvy, and an activity like using a HyperDoc is very engaging for them and perfect to meet their learning needs.

I also enjoyed learning how to blog and can see myself creating a blog to interact with parents, students, and even my colleagues. I think it is an easy tool to use and is definitely helpful in order to collaborate with others. 

Other tools that I learned about from this course include Nearpod, Thinglink, and Write About. All of these are awesome and will definitely engage my students in learning. 

Learning about the different frameworks in technology, like Triple E, was also very informative since it's important for teachers to be evaluating if their use of technology is augmenting the learning for students appropriately. 

There are so many more technology tools and features out there than ever before to help teachers and their students learn. I am so happy to have learned what I did. I'll admit, trying to do everything is a lot all at once, so it will require some baby steps to implement and use these different features. Nevertheless, I have my blog and Twitter account to refer to in order to look back on the different things I learned from this class. Technology is here to stay, and as I said before, in order to grow as an educator and a citizen of the modern world, we must immerse ourselves in the new tools of our time. 

I am looking ahead at all the technology tools I can use to improve teaching and learning for my current students and my future ones to come.