Reflection

Before starting this course on Instructional Technology, I thought I would know how to utilize different technologies in my classroom without any information from this course. 

I found that I was extremely wrong. 

Technology is constantly advancing and with those advances comes the opportunity to improve our lives and our education system. Without this course, I would have never realized just how useful technology is in the classroom. In another course I'm taking, I found that most of my peers are against the use of technology in the classroom. They seem to think that since they were taught without it, this generation doesn't need it in the classroom either. I  was one of three people in my class who saw the many opportunities that come from using technology to educate. Although I was one of the few against the majority thought, I found that this class was where I was drawing my support and counter-arguments from.

Technology has a place in the classroom and it may be more important now than it ever was before. This generation has grown up with a phone in one hand and an iPad in the other. Yes, there are negatives to that. BUT. We, as educators, can't ignore the reality. These kids will be motivated and engaged when we utilize what we know engages them. Some may argue to leave technology out of the classroom because they are consumed by technology at home. I understand that point but I counter it with a simple sentence that has come to be my teaching motto: If they aren't learning the way we teach, we have to teach the way they learn.

I've found that I've learned how to use so many programs that I've used for years in a completely different way. A way that is going to help me engage my students and their parents. I have been introduced to so many new applications that have been created to help educate. For example, I learned how to add hyperlinks within powerpoint to make fun and interactive review games. I learned how to make an educational youtube video. I was able to use Kidspiration, a educational program that I had never heard of before.

Initially, I thought that this course would be easy. That I wouldn't learn anything I didn't already know.

But I couldn't have been more wrong.