Reflective Essay

Throughout the entirety of this course, I have learned many valuable insights, learning theories and technological tools that can add meaning, engagement and flavor to the classroom. While my primary personal theory of learning has not changed, new insights, tools and theories learned within this course have added to my teacher toolbox. This course has handed me alternative methods for increasing engagement, strengthening retention and making connections.

Some changes have taken place in my classroom throughout this course; the first being an increase in the amount of time students are able to use technology. Secondly, I am slowly learning to relinquish control and let my students shine as they demonstrate their critical thinking and problem solving skills. They are much more capable and computer literate then I give them credit for.

Two technological tools that I am anticipating using in my classroom are voice threads and concept maps. With the integration of these tools, students are not only learning valuable technology skills, but they are also creating. After learning of the importance of constructionism in the classroom, the implementation of these two tools will provide opportunities for applying learned knowledge to create an artifact. Likewise, the concept mapping tools will present students with a new way of making connections and organizing newly learned information.

My long term goal is to integrate more and more technology into my classroom, technology that the students can get their hands on and use. Our text and videos throughout this course offered wonderful ideas on how to implement the new tools we learned about. While I utilize these tools now, I feel a greater exposure to these tool s would greatly boost engagement and comprehension levels among my students. Additionally, I need to learn to let my students be responsible for their learning; I need to take a step back and let them do the creating and have a bit more freedom when working with these technological tools. I sometimes feel they are given too much structure and strict guidelines to follow when they could greatly benefit from being able to think outside of the box. Taking a constructionist approach to learning and coupling this approach with a significant amount of cooperative learning, my teaching will improve and my students will prosper and grow. Moreover, utilizing these approaches and technological tools will greatly help make learning and information meaningful for the students.

My thoughts keep returning to Dr. Wolfe’s quote, “The brain is sculpted though experience” (Laureate Education Inc., 2008). Making these technological adjustments and theoretical changes explained above will help to provide this needed “experience.”

Reference:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008).Understanding the brain.
[Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.