This course includes the study of theories and practices associated with educational technology. It explores basic instructional design processes and strategies for integrating technology into teaching and learning and provides an overview of the EdTech field and a survey of emerging trends.
Reflection
Being my first class in over 8 years and my first online class ever, I was not quite sure what to expect. Would I learn anything new? How would I collaborate successfully with people I’ve never met and do not know in real life? What I found was that although I am already successfully integrating technology into my lessons, there is always room for improvement and growth.
I find it funny now that I was so concerned with collaborative projects in the class because looking back, I realize that it was my favorite part. I loved getting to know everyone and our varying backgrounds always ensured that everyone was experienced but had something different to bring to the table. I liked working with the same small group on more than one project. My confidence and trust in their opinions grew with each activity so by the time they were reviewing my Technology Integration Learning Plan, I knew their reviews were valid and I really took all their opinions into consideration as I finalized my plan.
I feel like the concept map helped me grow the most. It was difficult not because I was concerned I could not show the relationship between teaching, technology, and learning. It was difficult because I had to be so systematic and explicit. There was so much information I found myself unable to condense it to just one page of nodes. It really stretched my thinking. If I had used this concept map as a graphic organizer for writing and intended to write about each node, my finished product could have easily been a textbook.
While I was already familiar with the SAMR model, I appreciate the discussion board postings reminding me of its validity and importance in the field of Educational Technology. Sometimes, it is so easy to get carried away with the bells and whistles of different resources and we forget that it is more about complete integration. Technology not just for technology’s sake but because the concept or product cannot exist without its use. I really appreciated that conversation while writing my TILP. I was constantly brought back to reality by asking myself, “is this really something that is necessary, or is this tool something that can be replaced with paper and pencil.”