ITEC 7400, 21st Century Teaching and Learning has been a very enlightening course, and I am so glad Dr. Williamson was my professor. She was truly a model teacher. I thought I learned a lot about using technology in the classroom in ITEC 7430, Internet Tools for the Classroom, but 21st Century Teaching and Learning really raised the bar. While completing this course I learned so much about how to reach the TECH-PACK, that area where technological pedagogical knowledge, technological content knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge combine to create student-driven, project-based, technology-rich, authentic learning experiences. I learned about collaborative tools such as ePals which provides an online platform to unite classrooms across the hall or across the globe, making it easy to reach a LoTI Level 5 or more.
Our big project for this class was the Engaged Learning Project in which we had to design a project with high levels of engaged learning indicators and also high LoTI levels. I found this assignment to be very intimidating at first. Being a media specialist with no classroom of my own, I knew I would have to find a cooperating teacher to implement the lesson. Having been part of writing our School Improvement Plan, I knew mathematics to be a critical area for improvement. It stood to reason that the constructivist principles we studied would be greatly needed in math. After all, how many of us have heard (or said), “I just don’t know why we have to learn math if we are never going to use it?” Giving students an authentic, high level math experience became my mission. I found a model program from the University of Georgia and sent a proposal to my school’s math department head. She was very interested, so I designed a project that included collaboration with the local university math department and our school to study real-world, unsolved math problems. I got very excited about the project because it allows students to assume the role of explorer and provides the opportunity to collaborate via technology with professional mathematicians. I am looking forward to implementing it this fall.
My unstructured field experience for 21st Century T&L was the chance to attend the ISTE 2014 Conference. I gained so much from this experience, learning about emerging technologies and seeing all the wonderful, creative ways educators are integrating technology to create collaborative, authentic experiences that challenge students to analyze, evaluate, and think creatively about the content they are learning. My goal is to share my experience with my faculty this fall.
Our big project for this class was the Engaged Learning Project in which we had to design a project with high levels of engaged learning indicators and also high LoTI levels. I found this assignment to be very intimidating at first. Being a media specialist with no classroom of my own, I knew I would have to find a cooperating teacher to implement the lesson. Having been part of writing our School Improvement Plan, I knew mathematics to be a critical area for improvement. It stood to reason that the constructivist principles we studied would be greatly needed in math. After all, how many of us have heard (or said), “I just don’t know why we have to learn math if we are never going to use it?” Giving students an authentic, high level math experience became my mission. I found a model program from the University of Georgia and sent a proposal to my school’s math department head. She was very interested, so I designed a project that included collaboration with the local university math department and our school to study real-world, unsolved math problems. I got very excited about the project because it allows students to assume the role of explorer and provides the opportunity to collaborate via technology with professional mathematicians. I am looking forward to implementing it this fall.
My unstructured field experience for 21st Century T&L was the chance to attend the ISTE 2014 Conference. I gained so much from this experience, learning about emerging technologies and seeing all the wonderful, creative ways educators are integrating technology to create collaborative, authentic experiences that challenge students to analyze, evaluate, and think creatively about the content they are learning. My goal is to share my experience with my faculty this fall.