Personal Learning Reflection

• What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?

Students learn by making connections.   The Web 2.0 philosophy is an effective way to for students to make multiple connections by not only reading information, but interacting with it.  Giving students the opportunity to respond or represent learning in multiple ways allows students to show the complex connections they have made while learning.

• How did integrating the Internet help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?

I learned more from the videos in this course than I could have learned from years worth of reading.  The opportunity to begin to use a blog also got me thinking in new ways.

• Which of the assignments that you turned in do you feel really exemplifies good teaching with technology and why?

I believe the RSS Reflection and Lab represented good teaching with technology.  First, this was a new technology for me.  Scaffolding in a virtual world can be complicated.  Meeting the needs of both beginning and advanced learners within a single assignment can be overwhelming.  By giving me specific tasks to accomplish, I built my own skill base.  I feel that this lab was particularly good because I then had to use the new skill in my everyday life.  I have often felt overwhelmed by the amount of content out there.  This lab actually filled a need for me and probably many other online learners.  This is a great example of a tool that will actually make my life easier and one that I will continue to use.

• How have you met your goals established in your Personal Growth Plan?

I am excited by what I have learned.  Before this class, I was not really part of the Web 2.0 world.  I have spent lots of time interacting with various IB blogs and am beginning to participate regularly.  I have continued to monitor the RSS reader, but need to spend more time fine tuning what I truly want to follow realistically.  Combining my interest in blogs with the RSS reader has saved time. 

• Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?

I have used Twitter regularly for about a year.  I would like to expand this type of communication into a blog.  I am still debating what kind of topics I will throw out for parents to read about.  I am also still thinking about how to manage the feedback.  I plan to continue to grow my personal learning network.  I am struggling with managing the number of people I communicate with and follow.  Once grad classes are done, I hope to have more time to focus on the PLN.  I would like to expand online collaboration to my school’s faculty.  I plan to post school documents on google docs and attempt to hold some of our book club conversations on google docs as well.  This course, combined with 811 has reinforced many things that I have been doing and opened my eyes to many new learning and teaching opportunities.

Learning Style

I have often wondered what type of learner I am.  Most educators were successful students.  I learned how to play the school game well enough to get good grades, but I'm not sure that always equals learning.  Over the years, I have figured out that I am an auditory learner in most cases and also display some of the needs of a visual learner.  I learn best by discussing content with other people.  I have also found that I learn best when engaged with the speaker, especially if the speaker uses a story like format to presenting information.  I prefer to listen to the speakers emotion and often use that as a cue on what to pay attention to.  I also prefer to see visuals of what I am learning, especially diagrams or video.  The ideal learning opportunity for me is a visual presentation with voice along with it.  Interestingly, that has been a common format in both CEP810 and 811.

I often find myself struggling in courses that require tons of reading without the opportunity to interact with anyone about the knowledge.  Earlier in this session, I appreciated the analogy that learning is not an empty vessel, but a dialogue.  I need the dialogue to be successful.  I have also learned that while I have a hard time sitting perfectly still, I am easily distracted when asked to perform tactile learning tasks.

The statement that we can't teach every learning style in every lesson poses a challenge to teachers everyday. The OES staff read Brain Rules two years ago and had a similar discussion about incorporating its beliefs.  We concluded that doing things like showing a powerpoint while reading the content can be effective.  We often use a turn and talk strategy for students to discuss content, but we added a stop and write strategy where students take a few minutes to journal write independently about a topic.  Sometimes the students would then switch journals and respond either in the journal or verbally.  I also think that some subjects lend themselves to certain learning styles.  Science tends to be more hands on and we are headed that same direction in math.  I found it interesting that such a small percentage of learners preferred tactile learning.  I wonder if what we prefer always equals how we learn the best.

Creative Commons Photo

Here is a photo that I would consider using as part of a lesson next year.  We encourage our students to take action as a result of learning.  This can be a confusing concept, especially for students in 3rd through 5th grade.  Many students think of fundraising as the only form of action.  This photo provides another example of people taking action.

Attribution:

Image: 'Securing the occupation doors'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99306180@N00/3220646227

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en

Here is a recent photo of my office.  It should be done before school starts, I think???


http://www.flickr.com/photos/66061069@N05/6016249263/