Final Reflection

My brain was on overload this summer. I completed 12 credits toward my MAET in 8 weeks. I learned an abundance of new and amazing information, and thankfully I wrote it all down! My notes have turned into my own personal learning tool. I have learned above and beyond what I thought I would be learning. The information and readings were all relevant and beneficial to my teaching. The past two weeks I have been up at the school putting together new lesson plans for this coming year and I am able to use technology to enhance many of them. I have also altered curriculum in my Graphic Design class to teaching Web Design and other technology skills.

My new goal is to find funding for the supplies to make my stop-motion video. I have also presented the information to my principal. He thought it might be something that could be purchased this year.

I thought that using web-based technologies in lesson planning proves to be such a great tool to create a learning atmosphere where students become active participants in their learning. When students are an active part of their learning they tend to form personal connections to their work. As personal connections are formed a student’s intrinsic motivation increases, along with the effectiveness of the lesson plan. Each new lesson I create using technology I think to myself, I wish I would have known about this technology before, it would make learning so much easier or effective for the students. I believe teaching the students how to use technology as a learning tool is such an important skill for them to have in today’s society.

Teachers are able to implement many different types of teaching strategies by integrating technology into their curriculum. These are the three strategies most used in my classroom. I am able to use collaborative learning, by placing students in groups or interacting with a computer program. In my classroom I also effectively use inquiry-based learning, where students are given directions and scaffolding to work independently through a project. Another great teaching strategy is project-based learning. In my class, most of my lessons have a project students must complete. They get the chance to interact with the information they have been taught. These are a few of the teaching strategies I find most useful when integrating technology in the classroom.

Project Evaluation

In order to measure the impact that this technology has had on my students I will conduct classroom observations, and examine students’ use of lateral thinking skills on future projects.

I will watch students as they move through the process of creating a movie. I believe that this project is a success if students are collaboratively thinking through different situations to come up with a well thought out solution. Another great piece of evidence that this project had an impact on students will be seeing students self-exploring. An additional way, is observing students looking back on my website to find resources to expand their knowledge or find ways to overcome a problem. This will show that they are learning to use their lateral thinking skills to work through obstacles, failures and still come out with a wonderful project in the end.

I will continue to gauge the impact of this project throughout the remainder of the year. The proof that this project had a lasting effect on students will be seeing them continually seek knowledge independently and put together meaningful well thought out projects. If students continue to problem solve by using researching and trial and error methods I will know that they are cognitively using their lateral thinking skills. If projects are given to students and they pay just as much attention to the process, content, and visual aesthetics as they do the tools the stop motion video project has positively changed their learning process. Another skill I hope to see throughout the year is students purposely finding and putting meaning in their work. Instead of students just choosing an easy topic or meaning I hope to view students looking deeper and challenging themselves to think of unique and creative ideas of their own.

I will be able to see the impact this project has had on my students by using the students from previous years as a control group. I can compare the work made after the students created the video with the same work created by students in previous years who did not get the opportunity to create a stop motion video. I will be able to visually see if there is improvement in their creativity, meaning and thought process. The project's effect can also be viewed by observing the students in their work environment. These are questions I would ask myself while watching students work:

Are the students less apprehensive to start new projects?

Are students still afraid to explore independently?

Do students still need constant assistance and reassurance?

Do students know ways to find information independently?

I can compare the answers to these questions to how I would have answered them about the class I had the previous year. By doing this it will be easy to see if the project made a difference on student learning.

Looking at my project right now I would not make any altercations. I know that when I start my project there are going to be several things I change during the process and things I will change before I do the project again with another class. I find that I modify projects each time I do them because I learn something new that I can add or a new and improved way to teach a certain skill. I believe this project will be the same.

Lessons that I learned:

1. Use technology to enhance teaching students to understand, not to just know. It
will decrease the amount of reteaching time and increase the student’s ability
to build upon that knowledge.
2. Repurpose technology to use as an effective educational tool.
3. Teach students how technology tools they can continue to use to enhance their
educational careers.
4. Always adapt!
5. Technology is a huge and ever growing part of society and our student’s need
to learn how to use it!

Project Implementation