Bottom of the 5th - Final Blog Posting for Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

I would have to say that the biggest adjustment I would make to my teachings and with integrating technology into my lessons is to not be afraid to explore more and to make use of the technology that is out there. Because of this class and the others I have taken through Walden, I have become much more familiar with how to incorporate technology into my lessons. Before, I felt very limited in my knowledge, capability, and awareness of how to do this on a regular basis with success. I felt that if I had my students typing out papers and completing some research using the web, I felt that I was doing an adequate job. With blogging, wikis, voice threads, photo shows, and the other various projects I have worked on over the span of seven classes, I feel that my skills on using technology with my students has greatly improved. I have also learned so much from the other students, my fellow educators, in class and through collaborating on blogs.

I really enjoyed blogging and the voice thread activities that I have completed during this class. I enjoyed seeing other voice threads that accompanied pictures and feel that this concept can be used to complete projects in social studies and science, making for some awesome artifacts.

My plan for the future is: 1) not to be afraid to explore and "get my hands dirty" with technology, realizing that having kids type papers on the computer is not incoporating technology into my lessons; and 2) to seek out other teachers, educational blogs, and educational journals for ideas and take the time to become familiar with the ideas expressed by these sources. To do this, I plan on to at least incoporate a new idea with each month. As I do this, I hope to follow through with this more frequently.