Final Reflection

Because of this course, I have learned that I need to have a better implementation of technology into the classroom.  I realized that I still have to work on keeping the attention of my students through engaging activities that are also accommodating to different learning styles.  My past thought process was that if students were on the computer I was meeting all needs but the UDL principles have shown me that I was way off with that idea.  My previous goal of creating screencasts for the classroom is very possible and is a great form of review for students.  I previous wanted to “flip” the classroom but I think that my time would be better spent making the lessons more interactive with the use of technology.  My goal of this has changed focus, while I still see the benefits of flipping, I want to flip such that there is more integration of material.  I don't want to have students just watch a video of me lecturing but have an active part of what is taking place, or else its not much of a learning process.  I also need to make sure that when using technology I am not using it for “technology’s sake”.

My goals have now adjusted from making a meaningful flipped classroom lesson to using/creating web quests that include students as part of the learning process.  I think I would like to try to have a lesson in which students end up having a discussion on a live document.  The reason I think that lesson would be beneficial for my students is that the teaching process is removed from the situation which will force my students to provide the conversation while I as the educator guide the discussion.  I first want to start this process of reaching my goal by finding meaningful websites and resources currently online and then add my own touch to the material to have a more direct correlation to the class.  I think that this goal is very possible for me because there is a large amount of material currently available; it just needs me to find it. 

Benefits of Online experiences

Talk about how you could use one of the technologies that qualify as an online experience with your students. 

• What content could this help you teach?
• What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?
• What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?

After going to some of the links provided by Michigan Merit Companion Document I think the content of interactive discussions with experts for my senior math/ life skills course.  Then the online field trips and online simulations would be great for my physics course by allowing my students a chance to look future in depth with concepts. Then I have ran across some web-quests that allows students to gain a good understanding of topics.  

The online learning method allows for a mixture of classroom situations to arise.  Students have the freedom to use other resources to back up their knowledge and lets them discuss information in deeper knowledge.  The students also enjoy the use of videos because it allows for them to pause the teacher and write down information or any questions that they might have.  That's one of the reasons that a flipped classroom is nice along with the students working cooperatively with their discussions.  The flipped method also allows for students to move at their own pace, that provides a teacher a way to differentiate the classroom.

The technologies that require more time at a computer are harder for my students because not everyone has home access to a computer or the internet.  Then we only have one computer lab so time in the lab comes at a premium and students are expected to be working to their fullest the entire time (Not that they normally aren't but there's zero room for anything different).