COURSE AND UNIT REFLECTION - EDCI 522 TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
The initial readings early in the class were informative and provided good insight into the classwork to follow. I especially enjoyed Prensky and his views on Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants. I have already used those terms and their meaning in shpaing our districts Improvement Plan.
The Discussion Forums forced you to discuss the readings. I found the reading of other posts much more interesting than writing my own but we all must contribute.
The thematic unit project was a bear! I enjoyed the search for new digital tools to use in the classroom and creating the website through Weebly was a lot of fun. What was difficult in an on-line atmoshpere was the not knowing if you were completing a good project until you received your peer reviews. I believe if I had to do the class over again I would take it as at least a hybrid. I felt I was guessing a lot of the time in preparing the unit.
The peer review helped me immensely. Although I did not receive a lot of comments on my unit I was able to see a common problem within my unit. I did not provide an interactive digital tool for the students to use. With that weakness identified I sought out and added a Venn Diagram site that students could access and create their own compare and contrast diagram.
This unit will be used in the classroom if our curriculum mapping provides for this particular novel to be used. At this time the mapping is not complete for my grade. If I must change the novel I can simply change the learning tools but still keep the website as it is currently designed. That is the beauty of this site I plan to use it for multiple units, simply adding digital tools as needed but using this site as a consistent location for my students to access their assignments and to interact with their peers and me.
In retrospect, I would have taken the course as a hybrid. I think I would have been more comfortable with the new technology presented as I could have asked questiosn in class. I learned a great deal about digital tools and set up my first functional website.
The initial readings early in the class were informative and provided good insight into the classwork to follow. I especially enjoyed Prensky and his views on Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants. I have already used those terms and their meaning in shpaing our districts Improvement Plan.
The Discussion Forums forced you to discuss the readings. I found the reading of other posts much more interesting than writing my own but we all must contribute.
The thematic unit project was a bear! I enjoyed the search for new digital tools to use in the classroom and creating the website through Weebly was a lot of fun. What was difficult in an on-line atmoshpere was the not knowing if you were completing a good project until you received your peer reviews. I believe if I had to do the class over again I would take it as at least a hybrid. I felt I was guessing a lot of the time in preparing the unit.
The peer review helped me immensely. Although I did not receive a lot of comments on my unit I was able to see a common problem within my unit. I did not provide an interactive digital tool for the students to use. With that weakness identified I sought out and added a Venn Diagram site that students could access and create their own compare and contrast diagram.
This unit will be used in the classroom if our curriculum mapping provides for this particular novel to be used. At this time the mapping is not complete for my grade. If I must change the novel I can simply change the learning tools but still keep the website as it is currently designed. That is the beauty of this site I plan to use it for multiple units, simply adding digital tools as needed but using this site as a consistent location for my students to access their assignments and to interact with their peers and me.
In retrospect, I would have taken the course as a hybrid. I think I would have been more comfortable with the new technology presented as I could have asked questiosn in class. I learned a great deal about digital tools and set up my first functional website.