Week 1
My first real reflection in this course has been my Discussion Forum submission for Digital Age Teaching Professionals. This is my initial outlook at my hopes and goals for this course.
Digital Age Teaching Professionals
What would I like to learn in this course?
This term I am in my 6th and 7th MET course. There is so much I have been exposed to in the five MET courses I have completed. Rather than suggesting that this has ticked off a lot of boxes on my learning wishlist, what has happened is that I have been introduced to so many new ideas, theories, and technologies, that I now have too many things I want to learn; so many of which I never knew existed or were possible before.
What do I already do in my own teaching?
To facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, I continually endeavour to promote, support, and model innovative thinking in my classroom learning activities.
I try to incorporate digital tools and resources in order to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments for my students.
In an effort to model digital-age work and learning I place a high priority on collaborating with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources. I communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.
I believe that to some degree I am successful in promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility. I strongly believe in the ethical use of digital information and technology. I educate myself and adhere strictly to copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. As an educator in the 21st century, I believe that it is my responsibility to promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.
How do I engage in professional growth and leadership? Although I have always strived to become a better educator, and sought out ways to grow in my profession, being in the MET program is the biggest commitment I have made to this ideal. This program is allowing me to more effectively participate in learning communities that explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning. The MET program has also encouraged me to evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice in the use of emerging digital tools and resources in support of improving the effectiveness of student learning.
What are my goals in becoming a more effective educator in this digital age? What is my flight path?
To narrow down my enthusiastic list of “what do I want to learn,” I have used the NETS document and the 565 course outline in order to present a realistic list. In looking at the NETS document, I believe that I could list all competencies on my list of skills and confidences that I could further develop. However, in an effort to focus my list with respect to the goals for this course, I have chosen to highlight a few bulleted points, that will be my main goals for this course:
• To promote student reflection using collaborative tools. I believe that this could be accomplished successfully in the use of a Learning Management System such as Moodle.
• To develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to become active participants in setting their own educational goals, and assessing their own progress. For my students of today (versus the students of the early 90s that I started my teaching career with), I would like to incorporate a higher degree of online communication and collaborative tools. As I perused the reading list, I see authors that have come across my desktop from previous courses. This reading list focuses my wishlist for learning for this course. For instance, I am interested in using Course Management Systems in the Science Classroom to increase the collaboration, online communication, and interactivity of the courses that I teach. I am also interested in Integrating Digital Learning Objects in the Science Classroom, particularly in Chemistry 11 and 12.
• To demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. For this course, this would mean a particular focus on Moodle and Web publication. I have been exposed to Moodle briefly in two previous courses. One in which I was really more of an audience and one where I needed to create a course shell, but it was trial by fire. I am looking forward to learning the intricacies of Moodle, and of course, as suggested in this course outline, creating content that does not consist only of downloadable .doc and .pdf files. I am interested in Web publication as well. As much as I can follow the guidelines on a NING or Grouply or WordPress site and created my own webspace, I feel that I know little about Web publication to use it effectively in my educational practice.
