Prior to enrolling in the CIT program, I would have characterized my use of technology in the classroom as emerging. When I took my first program class, I had just completed my second year at my new school system. At that point, I was using the web interactives at www.explorelearning.com (called “Gizmos”) that my 8th grade science colleagues had been using for years. Never having had regular access to any means of digital projection at my previous school district, I had just begun to use PowerPoint presentations sporadically as I became more familiar with the platform. I had my student conduct some rudimentary webquests. But this was about the extent of my efforts to integrate technology into my instructional practices.
It is my hope that the contents of this portfolio make clear the profound impact that my experiences in the CIT program, and the knowledge that I have gained via its coursework, have had on shaping my instructional practices. Much of what I presently do as a teacher, and how I do it, has evolved over my time as a student in the CIT program, and in direct response to my experiences and learning. I would now characterize my curriculum and teaching practices as very much infused with technology, both as an educational and a communication tool. Hopefully my portfolio expresses as much.
As for my future practices, I feel safe in stating that my use of technology will only increase. In some particular uses of technology, I feel that my practices have reached a level of maturity, and I do not foresee significant evolution occurring. For example, the use of my website as a communicative tool and as a host of activities and resources. I may add more resources to my website, but I feel that it is very much an ingrained part of my educational practice already. However, there are many ways in which I see my uses of technology expand in the future.
For example, I have been exposed to the use of wikis in the CIT program, both in required projects, and in use with my CIT classmates as a collaborative tool. I have come to appreciate their value, and would very much like to find an appropriate place in my science curriculum to utilize them – maybe on an ongoing basis, as a forum for student groups to respond to readings, or to pose topical questions to each other. Maybe as a final product for a research project. Perhaps both uses. I do know that, given their cooperative and democratic nature, they are a platform of student collaboration that has definite parallels in the real world, and therefore would be a worthwhile addition to my repertoire.
Although I already use them, I would like to elaborate on my use of PowerPoint presentations. My knowledge of the capabilities of PowerPoint was nascent when I began my graduate studies, and I am now fully aware of their capabilities. Over the last few years, I have worked to incorporate PowerPoint presentations into each of my units of study. Better understanding their capabilities now, I would like to improve on all of them – embed more animations, hyperlinks, YouTube videos, etc. To be clear, I do not feel the need to add “dazzle” to my PowerPoints – making a graphic perform a figure -8 on the screen, or utilize 10 different types of slide transitions is not my aim. Rather, I would like to eradicate all of those moments in my class when I refer to some object or phenomena, and I have no way of showing it to my students. I believe that infusing my PowerPoints with images and videos of these things – a video of an eclipse, an image of the sub-atomic debris produced by the particle accelerator at CERN – would be an excellent extension of what I’ve learned in the CIT program, and would be of benefit to my students.
I would also like to expand my use of web-based simulations and interactives. Through the CIT program, I have seen the power of technology to present the abstract and the invisible, and put these things to motion. In the past, I would describe to my students how atoms move more quickly when heated, and more slowly when cooled. Now, java animations can show students how this works, and allow them to control the process. This ability is educationally priceless, and I will certainly take advantage of it more in the years to come.
I was very pleased with the outcomes of my EDUC 999 research project, and have determined that I should also expand my use of QUIA-based electronic homework assignments. The ability of the QUIA platform to instantaneously score student work, and generate reports that also include real-time feedback is tremendously beneficial to students. It extends my pedagogical presence beyond the bounds of the school building and the academic day, and the benefits of this are considerable. It had not occurred to me to use my QUIA website in this way prior to the undertaking of my research project; now I consider this use of my website to be an imperative.
In closing, although it is clear to me that the impact of the CIT program on my instructional practices has been profound, I consider the realizations that I have made, thanks to my participation in the program, equally important: the realization that educational technology will continue to evolve, and I serve my students best by staying abreast of these evolutions. The realization that, if I am judicious in doing so, I can continue to infuse my curriculum with educational technologies that are of great value to my students. And finally, the realization that in doing so, I am preparing them more effectively for life in a world and a future that is becoming ever more digitalized, and thus, I am helping to assure the future successes of my students.
|
|
