This course has introduced me to many forms of technology such as, wikis and blogs and how to incorporate them into the classroom. It has helped me to expand my technological skills and abilities, while allowing me to share these skills with my students and colleagues.
One concept that I found most intriguing was the debate discussed by Dr. David Thornburg and Dr. Hall Davidson in the video, Digital Native vs. Digital Immigrant. This helped me to dissect learners and determine if they are a digital native or a digital immigrant. A digital native is someone born into the digital world and a digital immigrant is someone not born into the digital world. This then led to Dr. Chris Dede presentation of Millennial Learning Styles, which are media based learning styles. He described how the media you use shapes the way you learn. Being presented with this information helped me to view the learner in a whole new perspective. Dr. Thornburg brought to light that we need to use what the student is bringing into the classroom (what the student already knows), and incorporate their knowledge into our lessons to create a better learning environment (Laureate, Inc., 2010).
Two long-term goals that I have for transforming my classroom environment are to really change my role as just a “teacher” to an “educational facilitator” and to focus on continuing to be a life-long learner. By being an “educational facilitator”, I will not only be teaching but empowering my students to work together to find and solve problems, as Dr. Dede discussed in “Millennial Learning Styles”, allowing my students to be neo-millennial students (Dede, C., 2010).
As a technology teacher it is important to continuously explore new forms of technology and be knowledgeable about what technology is being used by our work force and also by our students. I will do this by staying involved in a learning community, blogging, and communicating with fellow educators in my field.
Upon completing this course, I don’t think that my answers have changed much but I have definitely sharpened my tools for doing things differently and not just doing different things (Thornburg, D., 2010).
Davidson, H. & Thornburg, D. (2010). “Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants.” [Video file]. Laureate Education. Unknown.
Dede, C. (2010). “Millennial Learning Styles.” [Video file]. Laureate Education. Unknown.
Thornburg, D. (2010). “The Emergence of Educational Technology.” [Video file]. Laureate Education. Unkown.
