JLFinal+Reflection

Jonathan Lopuch EDUC 534 Wendy Wolfe and  Ben Knaus  y  6/7/09 Final Reflection I believe technology has emerged as a very critical element in today classrooms for multiple reasons. First, technology allows us to engage our students in ways unimaginable even a generation ago. For example, today’s students can contribute to a class wiki or provide instant feedback with their cell phones. The influx of interactive options at an instructor’s disposal should translate into a classroom that depends less on traditional lectures and provides different ways to evaluate how much knowledge the students have acquired. It is a constant challenge to keep as many kids engaged as possible, so the variety of interesting activities available thanks to today’s technology is a wonderful tool for teacher’s to have in their holster. Technology is also a critical element in today’s classroom because the students will need to have as much technological aptitude as possible when they enter the “real world,” so it is critical they are exposed to as much as they can handle while in school. Teachers can not avoid technology in the class because to do so would be a disservice to the students. Instead, we must embrace technology and integrate it as much as possible into our daily classroom activities. I experienced a great deal of personal growth throughout this course in terms of technological knowledge. While I entered the class experienced with the basic tenants of the web like blogs and social networking sites, I learned a great deal about educations opportunities available on the Internet and where to go to take advantage of them. This class introduced me to sites like Toondoo and Zoomerang, which I never knew existed but will certainly make part of my classroom. In fact, the greatest area of growth I experiences was with those tools I plan to integrate into my lesson plans. Not only did I learn several useful sites, but I now have the tools to stay up to date with technology. My hope is to make my classes as interesting as possible and part of my plan is to have assignments that keep the students’ attention and spark their imagination. The days of doing nothing but answering questions from the book at the end of the chapter are in the past, so the tools I learned in class will be something I carry with me during my entire career. I believe keeping up with the ever-changing face of technology will be one of the most difficult challenges I’ll face as a teacher. My current plan to keep up is to establish a network of colleagues and blogs that will allow me to stay current. This network will also assist me in becoming proficient with the tools so I can utilize them in the classroom. I will keep in contact with members of my network in my area through traditional means, but I also hope to network with people across the globe via blogs and other Web 2.0 tools. There are several things that excite me about what we learned in class. It is wonderful that technology can make the classroom a more interactive place, which will hopefully lead to a more engaged student body. It is also amazing that we can stay in contact with colleagues across the world and draw upon each other’s experiences.