Reflective Post #2 EDU 780

Reflective Post #2

By: Deanna Mulay

Image Source: https://www.globalfocusmagazine.com/tag/technology/ 

1. Now that you have finished the course, what is your stance on your role as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy? Has this changed from the beginning of the course?

    Now that I have completed the course, I have learned what digital and media literacy is and why it is important to have in our classrooms. At first, I thought that digital and media literacy was just having students use tools, such as social media or use different sites to research topics. Now that I have learned more about digital and media literacy, I know that it is a way for students to use critical thinking skills, be more engaged in lessons, and allow all students to participate. Digital and media literacy is also a great way for enhancing lessons. Technology is not suppose to replace lessons, only enhance them. In terms of my role as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy, I take more of a stand on different technology platforms for students to use and for me to advocate to enhance lessons for every classroom by  using technology. Technology may seem like a distraction, but educators need to find ways of using the tools to make more lessons engaging for all students. 

2. How can you continue growing as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy?

    I can continue growing as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy by taking risks with technology tools and continue looking into different tools to add in my technology toolbox. I can also create and attend different professional developments to help discover new tools to use for teachers and students as well. During this course, we were asked to find a new tool and also create a professional development. By repeating those assignments, I will be able to continue to grow and develop my skills as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy.  

3. Overall, what will you take away from this course?

    I will take away many ideas from this course. However, the one point that sticks with me is that technology is NOT meant to replace lessons. I think many educators, including myself, thought adding a technology tool at the end of the lesson was a way to incorporate more technology. In reality, technology should be included in every part of a project that students are working on. This course has given me a different take on technology and how I view it in the classroom. It is NOT a distraction or add-on to a lesson, rather an enhancement to the lessons to support all students. 

4. Any other feedback regarding this course (suggestions, questions, feedback etc.)

    I really enjoyed taking this course because I learned so much. I really enjoyed the Cool Tools Show-and-Tell. I think it was a great activity to learn more about different tools. It was also great to read about other educators' tools that they chose. I would like to do a similar activity in the future. I have really enjoyed this course and have learned so much!

Image Source: https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/2021/03/15/reflection-in-action-a-case-for-case-studies-amid-covid-19/

Final Thoughts

Over the last eight weeks, I have been learning about new technology tools and how I can use those tools in my classroom. Technology is only going to become more advanced with time and it will never go away. As I was writing my previous blogs, I often thought about how I can use the tools that I learned about in my classroom. Would the tools work? Would the tools be engaging for the students? Would the students learn from the tools? And so on. I would have to say that I have become more invested in technology and I am now researching new items to use technology more in the classroom. I had questioned myself for so long about if the technology was going to work for me or I was going to mess up a lesson because I did not fully know how to use the site. Here’s the thing, I realized that technology is changing and it is changing fast. I may not be able to fully keep up with it, but trying to avoid technology altogether is not going to happen. Even if a lesson goes wrong, it is fine! There is no need to just throw my hands in the air and say “I am never using technology with my students again!” Let’s face it, that statement is NOT true.

https://rockresearch.com/top-10-views-on-technology/

In the last few weeks, I feel more confident using different tools and exploring new options for my students. I have not been able to use all of the tools that I learned about just yet, but there is one tool that stood out to me the most. Screencastify is now one of my favorite tools to use. I use it to make videos for my students and upload them to SeeSaw. Screencastify is easy to use for teachers. I definitely want to use Screencastify with my students to have them explain a project they created using the computer or even just to share something about themselves. 

Image Source: https://www.gettingsmart.com/2020/06/smart-review-harnessing-the-power-of-videos-with-screencastify/ 

I went back to my first blog and I was rereading it. I think that I have become a better blogger over the last eight weeks. I never thought I would like to blog about new information and new technology tools to use in my classroom. My blogs give me an opportunity to reflect on how to use different tools and what the internet really has to offer. When I started this course, I was so excited to start and learn new information. I even used the following GIF to describe how I felt about the course.

Image Source: https://media.giphy.com/media/Ta2eHM043vhVS/giphy.gif

After this course, I realized that I feel like the following GIF (very confident) about technology and how to apply what I learned in my classroom with my students.

Image Source: https://media.giphy.com/media/wvI1UUF9pygFO/giphy.gif