IT Class End of Quarter Reflection

I have always thought technology integration is a must and now that I had the opportunity to learn more about it, reflect on it and really work on it, I am even more convinced! This is one of my quotes from my very first blog entry: "It is a new era and a new time in education in which technology plays a big part in it. Some fear it and others welcome it. Those who welcome it are in the right path because education has evolved and teachers need to evolve too. Our students are not the same of 50 years ago. Our students communicate in new ways and in order to succeed in their learning achievement, we need to learn their language" I still firmly believe that and even more so. 

In this class I learned that technology can be integrated in so many ways! You can teach an entire class and have student interact constantly though technology. This is what we did in our classes and I loved it! I really liked when we used Padlet because we were able to see all our responses immediately and give each other feedback in we wanted to. We all had a voice! I think that I will be using Padlet very much in my lessons. It is a great way to have everyone's assignments in one place and be able to all share them, see them and again, interact with each other. 

Padlet being used with Kindergarten!

Another tool that was very effective and fun is Seesaw What a great way to keep a portfolio of your student. We used it for some of our assignments and I really enjoyed it because we had the opportunity to record our voice, post links, write comments, even draw pictures if we want to! I was also able to see my classmates work and I find that valuable because we can learn from each other and we have a real audience instead of just doing assignments for the teacher. In Seesaw we were able to post what we learned about SAMR, post certificates of different courses we did like Digital Citizenship, and even make an analysis of what a fake website can look like and how to identify them. It is such a valuable tool that I will definitely use in my future teaching. 

Everything I learned in the class is valuable to me because I believe that our students need a lot of motivation to learning that technology provides. Learning not only the tools but the importance of digital literacy was incredible to me because I used to sometimes have to find reasons to back up my use of technology in classes and I did not have all the arguments I needed but after this class I feel that I can prove that technology integration as long as is meaningful and it combines face-to-face time, can be very effective and motivating for our students who are not the same youngsters we were. We have a completely different generation now and we have to modify teaching in order to reach our children. 

Technology Integration can motivate our students to learn

All teachers have a responsibility of integrating technology in the classroom and I will take that responsibility very seriously because as I said before:  "The Internet is a beautiful but a dangerous arena and we need to make sure ours kids have all the gear needed to succeed in it." The internet is there and it is up to us to direct our students in a positive manner and give them the tools to do great things with them. 

I have found this class very valuable. I remember teaching my mom how to use a computer, Facebook, and all of the main Internet tools so that we could communicate once I would leave Colombia and that was such a satisfying experience because I feel like I opened this huge door to her! She now has friends from all over the world, we can talk all the time, she can see my pictures and activities at any time unlike before when I would mail a picture and it would get to her two months later! Now we are more connected than ever and she has many things to do. I value digital literacy not only in our children but in our elders because they did not grow up with computers like many of us did and this is one of the new ways if communication and we need to ensure everyone can enjoy the great things technolgy has given us. 

Digital Literacy is for the elders too!

All in all, this class has taught me a lot and I am so glad we had the opportunity to start blogging. This is a great tool for us to communicate our learning and something I can use to remind myself of the things that I will do in my class. I am very thankful for our amazing teacher Brian Pahl for such an amazing class. I will surely miss it!  I feel lucky to have had such a caring and passionate teacher to learn from. I know he will be a great resource for me in my future endeavour. 

Brian Pahl - Great teacher!

Until my next entry and remember, next time you are planning your lesson think: technology integration!

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