EDLD+5364+-+Final+Assessment

1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?

When we began this class, I had expected to spend quite a bit of time in this course going over technology integration strategies, perhaps learning more of the theory behind technology integration into the classroom, and writing lesson plans/activities for actual classroom use. The outcomes I’d envisioned where an increase in understanding of the theory behind teaching with technology, some practical application of that theory in the way of creating lessons for students, and I had hoped to come away with some new strategies and resources to use in my trainings with the teachers in my district. I hoped that there would be some discussion on professional development strategies for teachers as well, as that is a very large part of the job I do daily as the Instructional Coach for Secondary Instructional Technology, but I didn’t expect to spend a great deal of time on that topic in this course.

2. To the extent that you achived the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?

As the Instructional Coach for Instructional Technology for all five of the secondary campuses in my school district, everything that we achieved in this course is relevant to the work I do every single day. It is my job to help teachers learn how to integrate technology into their curriculum effectively and the resources and conversations we’ve had in this class have really helped. I was a little frustrated, as some of my teachers must often be at trying to create an action plan without a template or idea of what one should look like for the course, but it was also a good lesson in problem solving skills and I think my team and I came up with a very workable solution. That collaboration is another outcome that is very relevant to the work I do. I work with groups of teachers in PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) to help them plan units just like the ones we planned together here. The UDL Lesson Builder will be VERY relevant to them as we plan together.

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? I didn’t get as much information on strategies for professional development for teachers as I would have liked. As a non-classroom teacher, my primary focus is to train and support the teachers as they integrate technology into their classrooms and curriculum. While the creation of lesson plans using the UDL Lesson Builder was incredibly helpful, and I will use that tool with my teachers from now on, I had hoped to get more information on helping the teachers to learn. There was a brief bit about professional development for the teacher in our project scenario rubric, but I would have liked to have seen more attention paid to the support/professional development aspect of integration. As technology leaders, that is something we may be (or already are) responsible for and it would have tied in nicely with the scenario if we’d had to do a bit more with how we were going to prepare the teacher and follow up with him/her after the lesson.

4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

I was successful in competing the course assignements despite some frustration at not having been given an example of a completed action plan to view. I realize that you wouldn’t want us to copy something, but having at least one good example is not only beneficial for students…but it helps us teachers as well. I was further frustrated by having to post to so many different locations (my blog, my wiki, my google docs, and my google site). While I certainly understand and agree with the need for us to learn to use and combine these technologies, it felt a little scattered and disconnected. I would have rather had to create a personal google site and included all the requirements there (embedded, linked, or otherwise). That was not a major issue in the grand scheme of things, but I wouldn’t post my own class information that way, so it seemed a bit over the top to bounce between so many tools when one or two would have been sufficient.

5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

Interestingly enough, I learned that while I tend to take leadership roles in the groups that I’m in (I was voted team leader for our group), I prefer working with people who really don’t need a leader. I prefer collaborative, cooperative groups where everyone contributes and pulls their own weight (well, after all, who doesn’t). I did also learn that I love to learn from other people (my team members) and have no problem with admitting when I don’t know how to do something. I think that is part of my social nature, I like to learn from other people in a group setting where we can all sort of dump what we know into the collective pot and everyone benefits. I think I am a lot like the students at the campuses I serve that way. I can relate to their love of collaboration, creativity, and the abilty to MAKE something rather than just fill out a worksheet. It’s fun to create together.