Final Reflective Post

I learned a lot of valuable information in my EME2040 class that would help me in my teaching career. The textbook was a helpful tool to me to understand and learn the importance of introducing technology into the classroom, and to learn the diverse web tools that exist to make our lesson more appealing and enhance student learning. It is always good to have a resource such as the book to look back to and learn how to apply technology in the classroom, and to also know that there are also many helpful technological resources that help our special students, such as ESE and ELL students.

Technology is important in education

The discussions that we had over the semester were assignments that enhanced the participation of everyone in the class to comment about different and important topics for us to know as future educators. I think that the discussions worked great to put together everyone’s thoughts and opinions on the topics discussed. On the discussion boards we discussed about the technology that could help students with disabilities to have the same opportunities as others in education, how to incorporate it in the classroom, know that the assistive technology works wonderful to meet the needs of ESE and ELL students, and legal and ethical issues of the use of the internet resources.

Technology is a wonderful in education

Credits to Texas A&M University-Co... On Flickr

I gained a lot of knowledge in this class through the different assignments, which I will be using and developing in my career. My favorite activities were the WebQuest and the Teacher Webpage Portfolio. I believe that WebQuest are a wonderful tool to introduce in the classroom; it helps to enhance student learning by engaging them in fun and educational activities, and the students to explore their skill and learn more about a concept. WebQuests are online inquiries that allow putting information about any topic together. WebQuests provide students with the opportunity to work independently or in small group activities that incorporate research, problem solving, and application of basic skills. The Teacher Webpage Portfolio helps to incorporate all the accomplishments that I have done in this course, and I can always refer back to when I need it. The instructional Wiki is another tool that can be also used in the classroom to inform students about any specific topic. 


Although it was hard to work as a group in the collaborative lesson plan, it gave an idea of what teachers have to do before standing up and teach the class. Teachers need to have a lesson plan before class, and use the state standards to guide the lessons. The Website Evaluation Rubric helped me to understand that there are better educational websites than others, and that as a teacher, I have to evaluate them before letting the students to use it; my favorite website for kids so far is Funbrain, it provides a fun learning environment through the use of games that help students to build on their skills. I absolutely loved the use of Delicious because it allows us to save important links that can be used in the future.

Here are some of my accomplishment in my EME2040 class:

• WebQuest
• Teacher Webpage Portfolio
• Instructional Wiki

Over all, I enjoyed this class. It gave me an insight of how valuable technology is in education, and that it is amazing to see how much it can contribute to student learning. It was hard to work in group projects because of the restricted communication between team mates. I would have liked to work on the lesson plan individually, because the cooperation of the team mates was not equal, and some had to work more than others. The use of the blog is an effective assignment because it encouraged me to read the chapters and make reflections on points that I believe were important to know to incorporate in the classroom. In this course, I also learned to use some of the web tools that I know will be helpful in the future, so I can use them in my lessons to make them more interactive and engage the students. Technology is all around us, and has already impacted the classroom in a positive way. When technology integration in the classroom is seamless and thoughtful, students not only become more engaged, they begin to take more control over their own learning, too.  I have learned, and want to learn more, how to effectively use technology in the classroom and lead my students to a better learning. 


Refernces:

Maloy, R., Verock-O’Loughlin, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.