WEEK 5: REFLECTION

Week 5 Assignment: Course Reflection

The components of the Instructional Leadership course proved to be very interesting throughout the past five weeks. I was impressed with the amount of literature that our course professors provided and was a little overwhelmed at times. Although it was very time consuming, the literature provided masses of useful information to the technology side of our educational system. The discussions with our colleagues also proved to be very beneficial in answering questions or concerns regarding the technology plan. I really expected to do some form of project in this course integrating classroom lessons with technological devices. I did not expect to spend the majority of the course posting comments on the discussion board about the various components of the technology plan. This learning objective proved to be very beneficial in order for me to gain knowledge of certain items related to educational technology. I really thought the creation of the power point presentations and my own blog site helped bridge the gap between my thoughts on the course and the actual outcomes. This course proved to be very beneficial for my current job because our new superintendent is very adamant about incorporating more phases of technology into our school system. He fully supports blogging, twitter, and the use of cell phone technology for educational purposes. I really reflected on his words and visions for our school district while I navigated through this course.
The only negative aspect of this course is that I felt I did not fully engage in the four domains of technology applications. There is a lot of content involved and a school leader must research and stay current with that content in order to be an effective campus administrator. I also felt like I could’ve learned more about the Technology Application TEKS and what must be covered by specific grade levels. As I navigated through each week of this course, I felt overwhelmed at times because I didn’t know if I was tying all of the information together. After the completion of some of my assignments, I questioned whether I did them right or not. I tried to cover the information and follow the course rubrics to the best of my abilities and finalize a product that could benefit the students and teachers on my campus.
This course allowed me to realize that I have a lot to learn about educational technology applications. Technology is reaching new heights in our society and our schools are falling behind because of financial burdens, lack of knowledge from campus leaders and teachers, and stakeholder differences. I have learned that we must find new and creative ways to integrate technology into our schools. Our students are gaining knowledge outside of school at a rapid pace and we need to apply that knowledge to every campus curriculum. I feel like I have become a more innovative thinker after the past five weeks. I am already thinking of ways to improve the technology in my Physical Education classes. This past week I purchased a Nintendo Wii in hopes to improve the physical activity of our unmotivated students. The excitement of playing computer games at school has really caught fire and with the installation of the Wii the students will be able to physically exercise while playing. Some administrators may look down upon this approach to Physical Education, but I believe it is solving the problem of lack of participation in these classes.
My attitude has changed towards the way we use technological devices in education. I am still against using cell phones in the classroom and I am not convinced that twitter is a productive tool, but I do like the idea of blogging. I didn’t think I would until I completed the assignment and created my own blog. Blogging seems to be a fast and easy way to provide information to a large number of people who are interested in the related content. Community stakeholders and school districts can benefit from educational blogging. I intend on posting all my basketball and golf information to my blog for anyone to follow. Newspaper reporters can follow the blog and get updated information on game reports and stats and parents can get important information while communicating with their coach. The same would work for classroom teachers as well. Students could collaborate with one another on projects and assignment through blogging. The only concern is the monitoring of the student sites to make sure they are following acceptable use policy guidelines. The possibilities are great, but require extensive work and effort by school personnel. Parents must also be willing to put in the time to help our educators integrate the proper technology into our schools. Technology will continue to grow and be a vital part of our educational system and we must continue to learn and educate one another while we implement it into our schools.

Action Plan Power Point

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Action Plan Power Point

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