Final Reflection

This semester, I’ve learned a lot about technology in general, as well as many ways to incorporate technology into my classroom. Technology can be used to make ordinary activities much more engaging or it can be used to facilitate completely new activities. It’s all available to us if we can figure out how to use it effectively. The technology inventory was especially helpful to me, because I discovered all the different types of technology available to me at Matoaka, which is a lot. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how to incorporate those technologies into my curriculum. Completing the projects has given me a few ideas and observing in the classroom has given me a few others.

Through this course, I discovered several types of technology I didn’t even realize existed. I think WebQuests are a very cool idea and I hope I can find a way to use them in my own classroom. I was also impressed with what kids could do with moviemaking software and podcasts. These kids really were brought up with all these technologies, so it’s important for their teachers to become comfortable enough with them to use them intelligently. It is interesting that Matoaka has so much technology available, but I see few teachers using any of it beyond the laptops and document cameras. It might be difficult for me, in my first few years of teaching, to use technology as much as I should because I will be worried about so many new things at once. I hope, as I get increasingly more comfortable with teaching, I will get increasingly more comfortable with having technology in my classroom. After this course, technology isn’t as scary as it used to be. It certainly can still be frustrating from time to time, but if I keep using it, I’m sure it will become more natural.