Reflection on experiences in the class Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction & Technology

As this course comes to a close I am in a fresh state of mind and eager to incorporate new strategies into my curriculum for the coming school year. As part of this reflection I have reviewed my personal learning theory from week one of the course. I find that aside from having some specific tools to add to my repertiore, my personal theory has not changed very much. This course has taught me ways to specifically incorporate the use of technology while approaching my students with researched backed, established learning theory.

I intend to incorporate the use of advance organizers and graphic organizers to aid students in making connections when addressing new content. Using these types of tools promotes the activation of prior knowledge and increases the likelyhood that the brain will incorporate new information with previously stored knowledge. In addition to organizers, I would like to add the use of voicethreads. I feel optimistic that this tool will encourage collaboration between students as well as higher order thinking. Prior to this course I had never even heard of voicethreads! I am eager to see my students run with this tool and explore their creativity. I am sure I will learn a great deal from them!

My first long term goal to make a change in my instructional practice is to make a concentrated effort to become proficient in the use of two or three of the tools from this course as I use them with my students. I will practice with my family and friends as well as students to become familiar with the details of using voicethreads. By becoming more masterful with technology tools I will be more effective in using them in the classroom with students. My second long term goal for improving my instructional practice is straight from the lips of Dr. Orey: Put the technology in the hands of the students! I never realized how much I model instead of having the students do things themselves. I will switch from using technology as an instructional tool to using it as a learning tool. Resources are scarce at my school so this will mean planning activities well in advance to schedule media center time and attempting to receive some grant assistance to put better resources in my classroom.