Technology in the Classroom
Amy Fortin: Chapter 6 Reflection/Application
Summary of Chapter
I thought this chapter was very informative on the changes in education today. I can believe that in the near future, I will possibly be teaching fully or partially online. The chapter outlined the different types of learning from the traditional brick-and-mortar schools to online K-12 schools. The chapter also gave a brief summary of the steps teachers should take in order to become effective online educators.
New Things I Learned!
I did not realize Walden University was a fully accredited 100% online University. I think this is going to be a more common trend in the near future with more schools such as Walden University, being built for virtual education. Also, I did not realize how easy it was to create blog sites, web pages, and wiki pages. I am excited to create my own blog, webpage, and wiki page in this class. I think these are great tools to engage students and maintain a positive source of communication between myself and parents.
What Surprised/Concerned Me?
The one thing that concerned my in the chapter was the fact that I realize that schools will most likely switch to more online learning, but I do not know if I have all of the skills in order to be an effective online educator. I would not mind teaching online if I had proper training on how to effectively instruct an online course. I read the instructions in the chapter, but I fell I need to either sit in at a professional development meeting covering this topic and actually practice with the online program myself in order to have a better understanding of how teaching online differs from the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom.
My Experience with Chapter Content!
I have had experience with formative and summative assessments in my classes at Upper Iowa. I have incorporated both types of assessments into the lessons and units I have created in my methods courses. There are many types of formative assessments I have used in my lessons, such as KWL charts, prediction guides, and 3-2-1 summaries. I like formative assessments because they can be used before, during, or after instruction. I have created projects and units tests, summative assessments, in my units.
How I Will Apply Topics in my Future Classroom!
I plan to incorporate numerous formative assessments into my daily lessons in order to ensure my students are comprehending the material. For summative assessments, I fell I will have my students complete projects more often than pencil and paper tests because I feel the students could show my more mastery through a project, portfolio, than a unit exam.
Also, I plan to become more educated on how to effectively teach an online class because I feel there is a strong possibility I may be asked/required to teach online in the future.