Final Reflection

ECMP 455 – Overview

I signed up for ECMP 455 as I had enjoyed the prerequisite class; ECMP 355. I enjoyed the technological ability, experience, and resources I left the class with. The 355 level was a classroom based course, where as this one was based online. As a pre-service teacher I feel that having some technological experience and tools; such as my blogs and online portfolio have me better prepared to engage my students, and meet their needs.

As ECMP 455 is strictly online I found it difficult to navigate my way through the class material. With the class Ning, wiki, and colleagues blogs it seemed almost overwhelming at times with the vast amount of material to review, analyze, and critique. I did however enjoy the opportunity to teach online, and interact using an online conference tool elluminate.

With some teaching experience already on my resume through my internship my learnings in this course allowed me to analyze my career choice. As our class discussions extended from technology to; citizenship, student health, and expectations of teachers. All of these discussions, and my interview with Mr. H only added to my excitement of being finished my time as an official student! With so many ways to connect, and incorporate technology in the classroom I believe that it is a very exciting time to enter education.

With all of the online tools available it is difficult to navigate through ones that are not user-friendly or congruent with using in education. This is such a benefit of this course as I got to explore some tools on my own; Woordle, Google Docs., and most recently Prezi! These are tools that I will use in my classroom. With all of my colleagues in this class doing the same it saves me the time of searching, and examining these tools. I will aim to remain in connect with these future teachers to share tools, and ideas.

As far as collaboration I benefitted from reflecting upon my experiences during internship, and sharing these to receive feedback from my colleagues on how to encourage students to continue to use the new technologies I was attempting to introduce. My present collaboration experience grew from teaching online to my colleagues, and teaching a Grade 8 Computer Class online. I found it challenging to feel as though I was fully understanding my students, and their needs. I did however, imagine how the “cool assignment”, that the “cool university students” created for them online might be fun and exciting! On the other hand, I believe that some of them found it frustrating attempting to navigate their way around the tools for the assignment without someone walking them through it. Solutions to this of course are; screen shots, skype, elluminate, or creating a jing. All of which require time to create, more time than if you were in a room with a student. As far as future collaboration I can see the benefit of remaining part of a social network of colleagues to discuss issues, promote technologies, or just reflect upon experiences.

 While it may sound like I did not like the course structure of the ECMP 455 class I really did. It was important for me to experience an online course of this structure, that was completely independent. As cheesey as it sounds, it really was the type of course that you got out of it what you put in! If you did not contribute to discussions you never had the chance to hear the valuable knowledge that your peers have to share. The learining really went beyond the course description as a class we discussed numerous topics that affect teachers, not just in the areas of technology. But student learning, and teacher guidelines.

By no means do I consider myself an expert on technology or computers in the classroom. but I do feel like I have a foundation of knowledge and experience to build upon. Sometimes I do not give myself enough credit in this area. I just have to remember that if I am going to expect my students to face their fears and attempt using new tools, I must do the same.

In conclusing this is really the starting point as I am looking forward to  being a teacher that continues to learn, experience, and incorporate new methods and technologies into the classroom!