I began this course as a solidly anti-technology individual. I think this course overall has made me more of a digital being, at least in my position as an educator. I think for the most part, I will still have a mostly-analog classroom, but I do see a space for some of the tools that I learned about in this class to be used in my classroom.
I have never been the best at adapting to change. My partner jokes that my worst nightmare is things going differently than I planned, and honestly, they’re right in that statement. When plans deviate, I get uncomfortable and I can be quite rigid in my lifestyle, stubborn in my decisions, and defiant when forced to shift. This class has made me a little bit more adaptable, if only because I was forced outside of my comfort zone in order to accomplish the assignments. None of the assignments requiring technology were easy for me. The essays and discussion posts came easily, however, since I am very comfortable writing. I think thanks to this class I can at least help educate students to be comfortable with technology so that they are not as stubborn as I am, thus setting them up for success in this digital world.
I am significantly more confident with technology integration than I was at the beginning of this course, but by no means would I use the adjective confident to independently describe my comfort level with technology. I am more confident, but not confident.
My perspective has broadened in regards to computer science education. I might not be the most comfortable with technology, but the only way for students to not end up like me is for them to have the education that they need to be comfortable with technology in school. I think the most critical issues that are most prominent in my learning experience are ensuring that all students have access to technology. I’m glad the school provides chromebooks for the students, because many of my students don’t have access to technology otherwise at home. I also think that students need to know how to use the tools provided to them to maximize learning and ensure that they don’t misuse their technology. I also believe that a huge issue is students being off-task as a result of their access to technology, such as playing video games instead of doing online tasks.
I enjoyed the infographic assignments the most, and the ones that I could better understand AI through. They were simpler, and I could master them, as opposed to other assignments that I drowned through and didn’t fully understand. The most challenging assignment I didn’t even attempt, which was the video project. I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of being on the camera, and I honestly just didn’t want to record or plan out a video. I had such a drastic desire not to do the assignment that I took the zero for missing it, which honestly I have never done before. It felt like too much work for so few points.
My experience with learning these skills was needing a lot of help from my partner. Some parts I still don’t understand, even after they explained them to me. I didn’t particularly enjoy having to learn the skills, and most of them were very frustrating. Some of them I found value in.
I will most likely integrate visual models created using FigJam AI or the earlier tools we learned. I don’t anticipate having my students make videos, or create a website, or design interactive pictures. I think I already incorporated a lot of student background into my classes. I am a teacher through Teach For America, so I almost care more about reaching my students emotionally than I do the teaching (although I am also very passionate about the teaching, I promise!).
I think I skipped the “being digital” part. I still don’t think that I am a digital person. However, I do think that this course has helped me to grow into a digital teacher, to an extent. At least, I understand technology more than before, although I am still technically adverse. I enjoyed reading about other resources. It was interesting to discover more about NDE professional development, since I have had such negative experiences with them. Their website can be found at this link: https://doe.nv.gov/nde-professional-learning/professionallearning/. The articles about UDL learning were also very interesting and reminded me of things I learned in my TFA training. I also found the information provided about scratch to be integral to completing that assignment.
I don’t think that I am a teacher who has advanced technology skills, so prompt 2 already has me wary of answering the questions. As far as who I am in this hybrid technology-based community, I think I still integrate the bare minimum of technology into my classroom; however, I think thanks to this course I view a few more aspects of technology to be the “bare minimum”. Instead of viewing the bare minimum as the tools I use to teach, I now also view a bare minimum as including tasks for the students to do so that they learn technology fluency, too. My students and I have had some conversations about technology thanks to this course. I have emphasized how important it is to be fluent in their technology usage. My students understand that technology is not going anywhere, and being a competent adult requires competent technology usage.
Incorporating technology definitely enhances student learning, not just by helping teach them math, but also by helping students be comfortable with technology. The provided case-based learning scenarios facilitated my learning by providing concrete examples of how to successfully complete the assignments in this course. I was grateful to have guidance in completing the tasks.
Overall, I recognize that I am less adverse to technology, but I still am not the most technological person. This class has definitely helped me to become more comfortable with technology, especially in the classroom.
Quinn Kendall, Educator 