Lessons+Learned

I left after our first session filled with anxiety and far from being “in the flow,” thankfully that soon changed and now I am glad to be somewhat of a power user with a few Web 2.0 tools. My main goal for this course was to learn how to create my own webpage, or wiki space for my future classroom. Not only did I learn how to do that, but I created two pages, and I believe that I will be a far more effective teacher because of my new knowledge and abilities with Web 2.0 tools.

My favorite part of this course was learning how to use Web 2.0 tools and exploring all of the resources available for teachers and students. This has opened up my eyes and sparked numerous ideas for lessons in my classroom. As teachers if we are trying to move to be and encourage our students to be fluent in the 21st century then it is important that we integrate a variety of types of technologies in our classroom. I think many times teachers limit their technology integration to powerpoint, word and maybe a document camera. This isn’t giving the students a fair education because they are not being exposed to all of the tools available to them that can take their learning to new heights. Now that I know everything that is available I will be a more diversified teacher, which is important so that I meet all of my students needs.

Another aspect this class touched upon was the constructivist learning theory and different models that really had to analyze our teaching styles in order to make our lesson in concordance with our preferred constructivist learning theory model. This along with the copyright laws that we discussed were interesting because not only did they apply to media literacy, but to every aspect of teaching. It is important that we covered the copyright information because it is mine and many others worst nightmare to unknowingly infringe copyright laws.

Overall this class has proved to be a wonderful experience. I have learned so many new things that I will be able to take into my future classroom. Now, I consider myself more technology savvy, and am “in the flow” with Web 2.0 tools, which in itself is a huge accomplishment! Not only will I benefit from this course, but my future students will as well because I will pass the information on to them, so that they too will be fluent in the 21st century.