Course+Reflection

1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?

This course has pretty much been what I thought it was going to be. My hopes were that we would delve into the web 2.0 tools and explore and develop practical applications. Although we did work with the web 2.0 tools I was hoping for more actual exploration with using them with students. It might be that they are just too new and there is just not a lot of application happening. My favorite part of this course was exploring the Web 2.0 book. I found myself wanting to read and re-read sections. I also really enjoyed the Pitler book as well. It had great practical project ideas and web links that I enjoyed discovering and exploring. In the end the course was pretty much what I thought it was going to be.

2. To the extent that you achived the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?

The studies in this course were and are very relavant to my work. I am an Instructional Technology Facilitator and the assignments we had to turn in for this course are very much in line with what I do day to day. I often don’t have to assist teachers in accomadating the combined challenge of the scenario but I am faced with helping teachers meet the unique needs of their students on a daily basis.

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?

The outcomes that I did not achieve were further exploration of specific Web 2.0 tools. I would have liked to have explored practicle applications for the web 2.0 tools a little bit more. I plan on going back to some of the resources we were provided and dig deeper to accomplish this.

4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

Yes, I was able to complete the course assignments. Week four was a challenging week. There seemed to be a lot required. That may be because things were moved because of Thanksgiving, which seemed like a slow week. Even though week 2 was not as heavey a load that week porved difficult with the holiday as well. I struggled those two weeks to complete the assignments when due. As the professor stated at the beginning of the course – it was hard to catch up once I felt like I was getting behind.

5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

I had never heard of the CAST site and all it has to offer. I plan on sharing this with several of the teachers I work with. I think it is a great way to provide the extra support needed to help teachers differentiate their teaching and the students learning. The collaborating was difficult at times. Most of our team wanted to wait to collaborate and then turn assignments in on the Tuesday. I was wanting to be done and have things turned in on Sunday. This was causing me some stress to wait unti the last minute. I found that in week four and five I just took a more active role of organizing our tasks and it made our collaborating easier. I could get things turned in and they could get things done when they wanted.