End of Class Post

This class has taught me a lot of different ways to integrate technology into the classroom that I had never thought of before. My favorite lesson was on Inspiration. I have actually used Inspiration to create study guides for my own classes, and I think that it is such a beneficial tool for students of all ages. It helps visual learners organize information in a way that makes sense to them, which really helps them to learn, understand, and remember the material. I also enjoyed creating the Webquest and the Nonlinear PowerPoint presentation. In both projects I tried to think out of the box, and plan a lesson that I could ACTUALLY USE in the future, rather than just work my way through an assignment. I got excited while I was planning my Hunger Games lesson plan, and it made me want to go out and teach that lesson right away.

As I was completing each assignment, I tried to make it relevant to my field in every way possible so that I could use my creations in both my portfolio and future classrooms. Normally, I would have just picked a topic that was interesting to me and go from there. However, by challenging myself to stay within my field, I really learned a lot about how I can incorporate educational technology into ESL, and now I have a lot of resources that I can use for the future, which is awesome!

Technology is ever-changing. As teachers, we constantly need to be adapting and keeping up to date on what technology has to offer us, because there are so many ways that we can use it in our instruction to aid student learning. That of course doesn't mean that we rely on it; it is just one more tool that we can add to our toolboxes of effective teaching. The more tools we have, the better, because we have limitless options to offer our diverse students. Many teachers are scared of technology, usually because they are unfamiliar with it because they have grown up in a different era. We can't be scared of change and we can't try to stop it. Instead, we must adapt and learn how to manipulate technology so that it benefits our teaching and our students.