When I began the Concepts of Educational Technology course I
assumed it would cover new technology based teaching theories. I was surprised
the first course was a good introduction to school technology. I envisioned
learning about the requirements of the internship program as well as a little
about the current status of technology implantation in the K-12 school system. After
taking the pre-course evaluation I realized there was a lot to learn during the
course and it would cover things I knew little about like technology plans for
the school systems. I was wrong of my pre-course assumption about teaching theories;
the course was more of an introduction to technologies being added to
curriculum, the mandated federal requirements for technology in schools, and a
broad overview of digital age issues. One of the things that aligned with my preconceived
outcomes was I learned a lot about the requirements for the internship and how
easily the activities could be achieved.
I did not know how extensive the requirements are for the
school systems. I learned a lot about what is required for the future of
technology in schools but also the extent of how technology has been
implemented in my district. The outcomes I achieved will help me while I work
for my district during my internship because I had the ability to go in knowing
more information about what they are doing. I am working with the technology
specialists for the district and they are working toward achieving the
technology requirements on a daily basis. This class taught me enough that when
I met with my mentor I had the ability to discuss the measures the district is
taking to achieve the technology goals. The information provided during this
course is very relevant to what is being implemented in my district and I look
forward to learning more during my internship.
One of the outcomes I did not achieve was ironing out the
details of my internship. I still do not know when I will begin working on it
because of the district working on a contract with Lamar. I would have also liked
more time with my intern to discuss the internship more in depth. They did not
want to spend much time with me until that contract is finalized. I also had a
hard time getting the document for this class signed and had to get permission
from the contracts manager just for signatures for my assignment. One of the
outcomes I would have liked to achieve would be to learn more about my state’s
technology plan. I spent a lot of assignment time researching Texas information
because of how hard it was for me to find the information for California
online. It would have been a lot easier if the class had a document of other
state resources available so I didn’t waste so much time searching for
information that I never located.
I was successful in
carrying out the course assignments to the best of my ability. I was
discouraged because many of the assignments are made for current educators but
I have never been an educator. I had to complete some of the assignments giving
answers to the best of my ability. This made me wonder how accurate some of the
outcomes would be if I had no real answer to the questions asked. I was
successful carrying out the internship documents but had to turn them in late
because of how difficult it was to set up my internship. The assignments I was
most successful doing were the ones we got to use technology to complete.
Setting up the blog, wiki, and PowerPoint were interesting to me and made for a
successful assignment. The Animoto and Wordle were very successful as well. I
liked doing these because these real based assignments teaches the technology for
this course and makes you think of real world ways the technology can be used
in the classroom.
During the duration of this course I learned that I am not
as knowledgeable about technology in the school system as I thought I was. I
assumed because I had technology courses in college that I would know more
about what is being used in the K-12 classroom. I learned I possess many leadership
qualities; I have had a leadership role in past jobs but did not know that leadership
was a part of my personality. I also learned that many of the technology skills
I already possess are what are needed to make a good technology leader. One of biggest things I learned about my
attitudes was I need to be more humble towards the extent of knowledge others have.
Some of the people I will be working with have not had extensive schooling;
however, they do have job experience that I need to respect. My mentor was a
little harsh with me and I got my feelings hurt too easily. This taught me that
I need to develop a thicker skin.
