TEC 901- Reflective Blog #1

Interior design is not a strength area for me. Now, we were learning about Innovative learning spaces. I know it is more complex than interior design, but it certainly plays a part. The main goal, just as with Ed Tech, is solid pedagogy and better, more effective learning for our students. Not arranging the class just to make it Pinterest worthy. What I found interesting is that the direction our society is headed is a more connected, collaborative situation.

It is not about what you know, but what you can (or will) do with what you know. Knowledge isn't enough; we must develop critical thinking and creative problem solving in our students, if they want to learn better and make a difference. From the reading and videos, it was clear that giving students the opportunity to learn from each other and have some voice and choice in something as simple as where they sit or how they show their learning can aid in this endeavor. I am interested to see where this heads in a few years.

When I posted my lesson plan on trying to be more innovative with a prior lesson using some different Universal Design Learning frameworks, I got some feedback. Now, I am a perfectionist and I know I know there are flaws, but what I liked about some of the feedback is that it was supportive and different. I didn't feel like she was picking apart my lesson (like I might), and she saw some things that could be made more effective that I had not thought about. One of the good things about this semi-sheltered community is taking similar courses and being able to see other articles of interest on similar topics, often from different sources. Being able to interact with like minded people is always a positive part of the teaching profession. There was certainly an increase in the reading this time, but I liked how the reading was a mixture of videos and articles on the topic and not just reading, and reading. As much as I don't always like extra work, I liked the Thinking Point checkpoints that made me reflect a little for each section.

• Project Status - For my project, I have not made much progress on it. With the courses, I feel like I am still in research/fact finding mode. I am afraid that if I start too soon, I may try to change it too many times or bite off more than I can chew. I am currently looking at some of the recent learning and trying to solidify how I will progress.
• Elective Status - I am almost done with the first course (Web 2.0 Tools), and have completed a Module in my PBL course. Moving along, just trying to make sure I keep using my time to work on school (and try not to neglect/ignore my family. :-)