Final Reflection

Overall, this course was very challenging for me personally due to the fact that technology integration has not been taught to me in-depth prior to this course. Consequently, I would say that this class has slightly changed my perspective and feelings about technology in instruction. When I say “slightly” I mean that it has made me more confident in my ability to use technology, which gives me hope that I will also be able to teach my future students new technologies to help replace, amplify or transform my instruction. However, I still feel like technology in instruction can be dangerous and misused. I say this because technology can definitely help students and teachers work smarter and not harder but it also can create issues of abuse and or technical difficulties that are sometimes not worth the trouble they may cause.

The technologies and tools that stood out to be in this course were screencasting and paper slides. Both of these tools are meaningful and engaging presentation formats that can be beneficial for student and teacher use. I really like that these forms of presenting material are conducive for using multiple medias such as audio, images and video while also requiring forethought, planning and collaboration. I could see myself using both of these technologies in my future classroom and student teaching semester. In fact, I used screencasting in my technology integrated lesson plan to transform what most may do as a simple poster project, into a more engaging and collaborative creation. In my technology integrated lesson plan I had students use screencasting and Google slides’ drawing tool to make a blueprint of a potential Rube Goldberg Machine that represented the model of the Water Cycle. I think I am most eager to use paper slides because I really enjoyed our in-class paper slides project. In fact, I already have ideas for using paper slides for student projects on meiosis and mitosis during my student teaching. I love that paper slides let students use their phones in a productive and educational manner. Also, using technology in these ways for my science class will help me integrated the ideas of STEM in my future classroom, which is a huge push in education right now.

I have not currently shared my technology ideas with my Cooperating Teacher. However, I would like to tell him about my idea to use the Rube Goldberg Machine Model and Screencastify for a Water Cycle project because this lesson plan is both NGSS and STEM compliant. This lesson plan also allows for the necessary modifications, accommodations and differentiation that allow all tiers of students to be held to a high standard of achievement. Furthermore, as mentioned above I think I will implement the paper slides tool in my student teaching because when meeting with my Cooperating Teacher she said that one of the first topics we will be covering when I get there is mitosis and meiosis. Therefore/, I think that I will share my ideas with her and hopefully implement them in my lesson for that unit. I think that since I found it engaging when done in class, students will also hopefully find the paper slide project really fun.