11-4 Final Reflection

This class has taught me many things this semester. Before taking this class, I had a basic understanding of what a technology integration specialist was. By taking this class, it has expanded my depth of knowledge about technology integration specialists and, as a result, I have a more   Technology integration specialists are vital to a student’s education in this day and age.  In order for students to be ready for the 21^st century jobs that awaits them, they need to have the knowledge and skills how to use these tools productively.

complete understanding of the role and expectations of them.

 The first area that this class has helped to develop a more complete understanding concerns collaboration. This is not only collaborating with other colleagues within your school, but outside as well. I feel more confident working with teachers of all ability levels and believe I know how to better assist them into integrating technology into their own instruction.  I now have a personal learning network through Twitter and monitor RSS feeds through Feedly. This will help me to not only share my own ideas with other educators, but to also keep abreast of the latest technological trends, methods, and tools when come available. This is extremely important, as the rate that technology evolves and changes is much faster than traditional curricula.

Because of this class have been able to add tools which were previously unknown me into my toolbox.  An example of this is my PLN as stated earlier. I am also become familiar with tools such as Google Forms, Diigo, VoiceThread, PBWorks, and many others. I have already incorporated into many of my lessons or my own professional learning. I also enjoy the fact that this class used “real” tools in the form of blogs and wikis, rather than just relying on Blackboard like all my previous classes have. By using these tools I’m more familiar with them and able to help other teachers and students use them productively.

I believe that this class has been very beneficial to me. The learning about collaboration, various tools,  the field experience  given me confidence that I could be an effective technology integration specialist,  and effectively,  help hundreds of teachers and students successfully use technology for more than just a glorified typewriter or presentation tool.