Final Reflection for 6711

My own personal learning theory is still very much the same. I believe that all students can learn, just some may be harder to reach than others. The traditional methods of days gone by are becoming more and more obsolete as technology continues to evolve. While some districts are still behind due mostly to lack of funds, teachers still share the same drive, to prepare their students the best they can and continue to educate them both academically and about the world. I also think that the more technology can be integrated into curriculum and the more active role students can take in their learning, the more they will understand and retain information. I will continue to provide my students with a variety of methods and strategies to make sure that all students get a fair and equal opportunity to learn.

There are a couple of new tools that I will use in my classroom that I learned about through this course. One, is VoiceThread, I really like the ease of use associated with it and think that the students will enjoy seeing and hearing each other during their presentation. Done individually or as a group can only help the students better retain the information by creating it or like Dr. Orey said, "constructing something they can hold onto and will help them later be able to demonstrate that knowledge," on their own. The other tool I will use more, is the concept mapping tool. This is a great tool used troughs Inspirtaion or Wespirtaion depending on which you prefer. They both work great and it gets the students engaged. By starting one at the beginning of each unit, I will have the students make their own, then come up to the interactive whiteboard and build one together with different students adding to it. There again, this is just another way to start to outline and present information that is different and another way of meeting my studnets' needs and different learning styles.

One long term goal I hope to achieve is the continued and improved use of technology in my classroom. I plan to continue searching out new and useful ideas with technology as well as looking for new tools. By continuing my progress through my master's program I hope to gain more insight. I also plan to attend as much technology training as I can.
The second long term goal I have, is to continue to gain students input and give them more opportunities and open ended projects for material we are covering. I feel, by letting them choose the technology tools they would like to use and project type, that as I stated earlier, they will gain a better understanding of the information they need to know. Plus, they may actually even like what they are learning about without even realizing it until later. But, that will be our (as teachers) little secret!

References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program seven. Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore: Author.