Going through this course has really helped me to go back to the role of the student. Sure I've been a student of my masters' program for some time now, but this felt different. I felt like I gained new skills instead of just new theories or understanding of why we do what we do. This course gave me a really good reminder of what students go through as they learn a new skill. They not only have to get over any nervousness or anxiety they experience with a brand new thing, but then they need to figure out the new program or application and try to master it so they can use it efficiently. This was my trouble with the wiki project. I didn't know what to expect, especially working with a group of people I didn't really know. I had to really explore the application to figure out how to make it work for me!
My classes have generally always been learner-centered as it is very project-based, but now as I think about it, I can do even more to transform my perspective. Instead of teaching them the skills and then using the project as a type of practice, I will be using the project to teach new skills. I can give the students the opportunity to explore the skill on their own and then teach the proper use or application of that skill as it applies to our class. By giving the students even more of the responsibility for their learning, they will be more prepared as they leave my classroom at the end of the semester.
I have truly enjoyed learning new things during this class, and as I am devoted to being a life-long learner, I will be looking for every opportunity to continue to expand on my learning. I have recently attended a technology integration conference, and am looking for other professional development opportunities to pursue.
Within the next two years, I would like to have a regular student-led blog in each of my classes. I am going to start small with this spring semester, but I want to really use the blog as a teaching AND learning tool. I also would like to find new ways to use the same tools I have. For example, instead of using wordle.net for just a basic word cloud, it could be used to identify repetition in speeches. If you insert the words into wordle, you will see which words are used the most because they will be the largest in the word cloud. This could be used for analyzing famous speeches or even as a reviewing or editing tool for student speeches. How much better would student speeches be if we could reduce the repetition of some of the words they use?!
