EDLD+5364+-+Course+Reflection

Like most of the steps along this journey, this course gave me new and different tools to meet the goals that were set before us as students from the proverbial get-go. As we seek newer, better, more teacher-friendly ways to use technology to drive learner centered lessons and activities, the lesson of this course - both those learned from the course-work directly and those gleaned from the benefits of the group work and collaboration - will provide a great basis for this process.

One of the most important pieces of teaching with technology is the REAL learning that can take place. Students for longer than I can fathom were programmed to memorize and regurgitate information - this passed (and in some places, still passes) for "learning." But the truth of the matter is that only though repetition and practice can students actually learn. Only through a tool that fits their own interests and knowledge can students accurately express WHAT they have learned. Given students a standardized test, and those who succeed are likely to be as knowledgeable about HOW to take a test of that ilk as they are are aware of the information on which they were tested. Those who struggle on such tests will struggle regardless of what they know or have learned.

Allowing students to use technology facilitate and reflect learning is the only truly accurate way to gauge what they have learned - and, as teachers, we are charged with ensuring that is what it taking place.