Looking Back...

Once again, I am asked to reflect upon my latest course at Walden University, Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology.

One of the most beneficial projects of this course has been the group Ning. On it, we have shared resourses and strategies for Universal Design for Learing and Differentiated Instruction, many of which will be very helpful to me going forward. We have shared sites that will help us get to know our students, and when you have over 500 students with over 600 planneed for next year, any help in this area is greatly appreciated! If I can get to know my students, their interests, and their abilities, I will understand how to best serve them. Without this understanding, I am just fumbling around in the dark, so to speak.

There were other ideas presented that I will implement. We learned about computer helps such as sticky keys and text-to-speech software that can be useful for some of my students. We learned about the need for multiple means of represetation, action, and engagement. Honestly, this will be hard in the computer lab because of the time constraints that I face with my students, but I plan to do a much better job of giving my students the choices that will keep them engaged and help them master my content.

Another change that I wish to implement is incorporating more and better assessments into my teaching. Because I am not held responsible for grading my stduents' work, I tend to let this slide so that we can move on to the next project. We store our work in a folder on our computers that serves as a sort of digital portfolio, but I want to formalize this a bit. I want my students to start adding their own assessments of the work they have created. I want them to be able to see clearly what they have learned and accomplished in my room. It is important to me that my lab be fun, but the students must know that they are learning, too.

Though this course was definitely beneficial, I have to say that I have most looked forward to our next course in this program, Emerging Technologies. I was really encouraged when the course materials arrived in an envelope too thin to contain a book because "emerging" technologies could never be presented that way. By the time a book was published, they would no longer be "emerging," would they?

I imagine I will soon be letting you know about the emerging technologies I learn about. I hope they live up to my expectations!

Here is a VoiceThread that I did for my current Walden course.

http://voicethread.com/share/1039251/

Here is a Glog that I did for our Walden course. I hope you like it!

http://mrsjeffers.edu.glogster.com/learning-about-udl/