The main outcome that I envisioned achieving from this course was learning about the decision making process of administrators when it comes to technology in the school. I believe that I did achieve this outcome through my interviews with the principal, teachers, students, and the instructional technology department. Being a new teacher, I had little to no concept of the amount of research and data that goes into the decision making process. I believe that this outcome was in line with the outcome of the class. One outcome that I envisioned that I did not achieve with this class was the implementation of technology into the classroom. I thought that I would get a better feel for how technology is implemented into classrooms but this course took more an approach only from an administrator’s point of view. Looking at the class now, I realize that was the point of the course, but to start I would have liked to get more a view from a teacher’s standpoint.
I teach Physical Education, so many of the issues that were addressed in this class do not apply to my day-to-day teaching. However, the issues that effect my entire school are very relevant. We recently had an administration change and are going through many different changes in curriculum, budget, technology, and personnel. In this regard, the information that I gathered from this class has really given me an informed opinion about the direction that our school district should take. I have seen the new administration go through the decision making process of new software and I have been able to compare their decisions with the ones that I would make based on the STaR chart of our school.
The assignments in this class were very reasonable and achievable. I was able to complete every assignment, but I was not able to do so to the best of my ability. There are many factors that go into the success or failure of a class, and unfortunately for me, all of those factors were working negatively against my performance. I believe that one of the down falls of an online course is the lack of face to face interaction. While we had a two day grace period for each assignment, I would have loved to sit down with my professor and discuss the issues that were plaguing my school this year. The district had an administration change; my school had an administration change; my coaching staff had an untimely termination that forced much more responsibility onto the remaining coaches. These were all factors in me not being able to complete this course to the best of my ability and were the absolute reasons for me not being able to complete all assignments on time.
The main thing that I learned from this course is that I have a head start on most teachers when it comes to technology. This is only my second year teaching and I am naturally more able with computers and the Internet than teachers who have been in education for many years. In college I took several classes online and took care of all administration issues through WebCT. I have grown up with the Internet and therefore more familiar with it than people who started teaching when computers were not even invented. I am also involved with this program which is entirely online, and therefore have a great idea of what it takes to be technologically competent.
I believe that blogs have huge potential in education. The ability to share thoughts with millions of other students and teachers gives today’s students a huge advantage. The more ideas that students are introduced to give them a better idea of how society views different subjects and now just their teacher and fellow classmates. However, blogging poses a potential risk for students as well. When information comes from many different sources, it is difficulut for students to sort through the legitimate and the misinformed. I believe that blogging still has a long way to go before it is totally reliable, but I think that it is still a valuable tool for students today.
Blogging can also be beneficial to teachers when the communicate with the stakeholders of a school. If every teacher had a school blog, parents and students would be able to simply log onto the Internet and read what the teacher wanted to say. This would help with absences of both teachers and students, and also allow parents to follow what their children are learning in detail. If a teacher posted the day’s homework assignment on their blog, students would not be able to lie to parents and fall behind on work. Despite its dangers, I believe that blogging is a great tool for education.
Overall, I believe that this course was beneficial. While I personally did not have the best experience during this course, I believe that the material was very sound. As technology improves exponentially, schools will have a more difficult time keeping up. I believe that teachers must do all that is possible to try and stay even with students when it comes to the use of that technology and I think that this course helped in that regard.