Reflections on your Journey
Twenty-nine years ago I started college with a type writer and a card catalogue in the library to complete my research papers. Fast-forward twenty-nine years and I use a laptop and the internet to complete my masters degree. When I started teaching, my 4th grade class visited the computer lab once a week to insert CD-ROMs and play educational games. Gradually, more computers were available and I was able to allow students to complete classroom assignment and make slide shows. For a good decade, I used computers to teach READ 180 and for sharing documents with me. Very few of these assignments required group collaboration and technological savviness. Technology was changing so fast I couldn't keep up with it! I found myself asking my students for help and a sense of direction in terms of learning and understanding the latest technological innovations. I decided to further my education and background with understanding advancements in technology and how these programs could benefit learning in the classroom to better enhance my inquisitive nature. Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program Touro University and NapaLearns provided for me an opportunity to pick a masters degree are I could specialize in that is aligned with technology. The Innovative Learning emphasis has allows me to share information and ideas with cohorts, as well as provide a sophisticated educational platform from which my students can gain greater insight and enhance their learning on a given topic. I have learned that you have to continually work with technology in order to obtain a good understanding of the tools you want your students to learn. This program has made me see learning through the eyes of a student and see important it is to learn by doing. TPACK Reflection Technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge are required in all aspects of teaching and learning. Students have to be able to demonstrate knowledge and mastery of core content standards and technology allows students to showcase their learning. Technology in the past, was a time filler for me. Today, I use technology to integrate learning with real world problems. TPACK allows me to instruct students with the most innovative strategies that lead to desired learning outcomes.
2 Comments
Kayla Bryant
6/24/2018 07:47:41 pm
It really is crazy to think about how much technology has advanced in recent years. I'm also thankful for how much we learned about it throughout the course of this program. It's funny how about half of the tools we needed to know for ourselves in order to get through the program, and then the other half are things we can use or share with our students. This program has inspired me to take a more active role in learning about new technology for education because of the understanding I now have about how quickly everything changes!
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Amanda Olson
6/24/2018 10:09:45 pm
I have taken away the same student-centered perspective we have gained from this program. This program has delivered us the incomparable experience to once again become the student, but not just any student, rather a student who learns by doing. As a Kindergarten teacher, I of course want to always do the doing for my kiddos and allow them to learn by simply doing a replication of my doing. But is this learning? I have been forced by own experiences in this program to rethink how my Kinder kiddos are learning, and the idea that you learn by doing began to drive my instruction. Although scary at first, I found that the more I allowed my students to just do and learn through the doing process, the more they surpassed any initial expectation I had of them. I found expectations limited student success if they were solidified, but if they were fluid and never restraining they fueled the learning and innovation of my students.
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AuthorHeather Feinberg is an Academic Specialist for grades K-5 at Yountville Elementary. Archives
July 2018
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