EDLD+5364+Reflection



** EDLD 5364 Reflection ** To me, Teaching with Technology, was one of the hardest courses I have taken at Lamar University. The course was very time consuming, involved, engaging, and most importantly very dependent on outside factors, my classmates. A big majority of the assignments for this course were group driven. This was a very hard task to accomplish since we were all located in different cities and meshing our schedules was a full time job in itself. As a former computer lab teacher I was always used to the concept of having technology in my daily lessons. It was part of my job; I was given the task to teach technology to my school’s roughly 800 students from grades kindergarten through 5th grade. My lab had all the things you would expect to find in a lab setting, Smartboard, digital projector, document camera, scanner, printers, microphones, digital camera, and a strong Internet connection. Now what made this class that much more difficult was I had to think outside my comfort zone and develop lessons for a specific grade level and subject. This was a new concept for me, all I have ever known was the computer lab and seamless endless assess to technology in my tiny little room. Most classroom teachers did not have the same luxuries as me. The vast majority did not have a quarter of the item I had in my lab and I had to come up with lessons with technology that they can first understand, use, and teach their students with in a meaningful and learning environment. The CAST Lesson Building activity allowed me to help solve this issue. The reverse process of building a lesson plan allowed to me first think about my final goal/product and then fill in the gaps to build a technology rich lesson for teachers and students. I think by far the bet part of the course was making the electronic book. The process was not that simple but the sites tutorials make the process manageable and the electronic book a virtual success. I had the privilege to showcase my electronic book to my colleagues and in turn the change to do a few professional development courses on my campus to teachers who want to enrich and supplement their students learning. ** References ** Center for Applied Special Technology. (2010). www.cast.org