Course+Reflection

 When I signed up for the course I was not sure what to expect or how it would fit into my daily work as an educator. I already know technology but what else could I learn and deliver differently. How could I incorporate this into my classes and pass along to my adjuncts? Those were questions that loomed largely for me. As it turned out I learned a lot of things. I knew a bit about Web 2.0 and it’s uses but not about ITSE Standard nor the schools technology plan in our area since I am not associated with K-12. The class has opened my eyes to a lot of different things that are going on to level the playing field.  **To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not? **  Since I work in a learning management system (LMS) every day and enjoy the benefits of wikis, blogs, discussion forums within the classroom I still learned a lot of different uses and ways to do things differently. For instance, an adjunct was hampered because the size of our LMS will only allow 10K file size and some of her students projects are larger. After much discussion I suggested she use Wikispaces and have the students link to their work for the presentation. In all probability, I would not have thought about it had our EDLD 5306 class not used this feature.  **What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? **  Not working in a K-12 environment I am not sure of what outcomes were not achieved. Having worked in technology for so long in every aspect from hardware to software to teaching sometimes you need to refresh your goals and see what is going on around you. I think this course provided me with some things to think about, however, the college that I work for has so many professional development opportunities that it hard to fail with so much support and information.  **Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? **  Carrying out the course assignments were not difficult but over the top in time consumption. I do not shriek from work nor do I accept it from my students, however, looking at the contact hours that is placed in this 3 credit hour course is daunting. I spent 30 to 40 hours sometimes reading, writing, re-doing, helping and re-thinking. The task was made more difficult when two students are separated out and given different assignments. The grading rubric changes but not the grading. Assignments change but instructions are not adhered to on the instructor side. Frustrating yes but a new profound reality for me when over a thousand students under my charge and 43 adjuncts come to me with “Ms.Poe can I talk to you”.  **What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">From the very beginning of this class to now I have learned a lot about the backdrop of why schools do what they have to do and what they are charged with doing. Never once have I heard of the STaR chart or its significance or ITSE and the domains. I do not work with these but they are tools and information I use daily. The digital immigrants and digital natives articles were fascinating and resonated with my way of life as a digital technologist. During these weeks of working on the course I have also found a new appreciation for my students questions and how I will answer them. There was not much in the technology field that I had not used, been exposed to and/or have plenty of professional development to help me if I choose to use.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned? **