ETC 547 had an impact on my professional growth and development including success with technology integration, knowledge of more tech tools and resources, and academic writing experience.
ETC 547 directly impacted my professional learning as an educator and helped me develop a new philosophical understanding of technology implementation. By completing assignments, research multiple learning theories, reading required literature, and exploring a repertoire of technology resources, I was able to reflect my current pedagogy to match the learning that I experienced throughout this course. My new pedagogical approach will be informed through my main take away that I learned by researching about constructivism learning theory, culturally relevant pedagogy, universal design for learning, and critically analyzing how technology resources can be intentional instead of an add-on to a lesson plan. The technology integration allowed me develop a new set of tools that I can use to engage my students in meaningful learning opportunities and to address my students individual learning needs. The technology resources that were introduced focused on multicultural collaboration, social networking output, multiple modalities of presentations, and educational apps which can transform the learning environment to match 21st century digital age culture. Through this course, I can now better incorporate technological resources to be used as the primary mode for learning to help construct my students new knowledge sets.
Scholarly Paper
This scholarly paper was a rewarding writing assignment as I was able to challenge my higher intelligence to improve my quality of writing. The process of mapping out my ideas, researching, annotating, summarizing and organizing a cohesive writing product was not difficult given instructor directions and resources to aid in my polished writing artifact. Given my previous experiences using the NAU ERIC Database, I was quickly able to recall the functionality to the university's Cline Library and to research my selected theories from peer-reviewed sources. What I found challenging during the writing process was organizing my two learning theories in my paper to make my ideas flow and to not get the reader confused. What helped me with the organization of my paper was focusing on one theory at a time and at the conclusion of first theory introducing another theory to support why I think these theories are optimal for learning development. With that said, when I look back at this paper, I can see the quality and passion behind my writing to engage my readers in learning about learning theory. In addition, the professional support, constructive feedback and collaboration amongst my peers helped me with solidifying this polished paper.
The tech-infused instructional activity that I put together incorporated all of the learning that I developed through this course. The ISTE-standards were a key component that was a part of this lesson plan that help guide my instructional strategies towards technology integration. These standards assisted with my understandings of technology usage and solidified my meaningful intentions towards selected technology resources. Through these standards, I was able to construct a lesson plan that relied primarily on technology rich resources with emphasis on collaborative Web 2.0 technology, which will help in making the environment more inclusive and support English Language Learners and special education students. With the criteria available to me, I was able to use my knowledge of constructivism, culturally relevant pedagogy, and multiple technology resource to create a technology rich lesson plan that will aid in helping students learning new content. From the perspective of universal design for learning, I ensured that this detailed lesson plan made the learning experience available for all students and made me more accountable towards being proficient with meaningful technology integration.