Lindsey Ardus

ETAP 628

Learning Journal: ePortfolio Reflective Piece

The world of education is always changing and evolving. Effective teachers put in

the effort to research, experiment with, and reflect on new teaching practices. This course

has allowed me to learn about various new tools in the education world, and the chance to

try them in my classroom. As an educator, I feel that my teaching has improved from this

course because I am walking away with applicable and practical tools. This course

challenged me to go outside of my comfort zone and try out new technology tools that I

had not been previously familiar with. I was able to practice it on my own, and then bring

it into my classroom for my students. The willingness to implement new teaching

strategies shows growth in schools. Teachers can be change agents by staying up to date

with the latest tools, and putting in the effort to bring this to our students.
The largest area of growth that I have seen in my teaching is the application of

21st century skills. This field is expanding faster than teachers are able to keep up with.

The push for students, and teachers, to be digitally literate is extremely important.

Personally, I feel that the best resource for 21st century teaching skills came from the

ISTE standards. These standards clearly defined what students should be able to do in

today's world. I feel that the most important one for me to integrate into my classroom is

Empowered Learner. This standard encourages classrooms to have technology play an

active role in meeting goals and demonstrating knowledge (ISTE, 2016). As empowered

learners, both teachers and students are working towards finding news ways to take in

and communicate learning. In 21st century learning, teachers are responsible for
integrating these new platforms and allowing students to explore new technologies. I feel

that these standards are important because they set the baseline for new age education.
In many of the teacher education courses that I have taken, we study effective

strategies and techniques in the classroom by reading articles. We read from experienced

teachers and researchers who have found the newest best practice. Rarely (and

especially with online courses), do I get hands on experience with these teaching

practices. Personally, I know that I learn better from first hand experience over reading

articles. In this course, we were exposed to many different tools by completing the

practicum assignments. These assignments allowed me to practice, learn, and experiment

with a variety of digital tools. Of these, I was exposed to many tools that I typically

would not use or try out. For example, I created a comic strip. I am not the most artistic

person so this was something outside of my norm. However, I was surprised at how

easy it was to create. I had a lot of fun adding new messages and scenes. I could easily

see my students using this in the classroom! Another practicum activity that I had never

done before was the screencast video. For my flipped classroom lesson, I filmed a short

video of myself lecturing with a screencast of my PowerPoint notes. I was shocked at

how simple this was to create and upload! I will definitely be using this in my classroom

to film lessons for students who miss class, or even try out the flipped classroom model.

The biggest take away from the practicum assignments this semester was the chance to

teach myself how to use them. I was truly a learner as I experimented with new tools. I

feel that this gave me a great perspective on the new teaching strategies so that I may

integrate them into my classroom.

plan on iBook creation. All three are digital tools that I did not have prior experience with
in the classroom. Padlet is a great site that allows users to pull links, photos, documents,

and resources together. All resources are organized and easily accessible in one place. I

saw an immediate use for this in my government class. Students use a variety of local

government websites to complete their scavenger hunt assignment. I frequently get

asked by my students what website do I need for the project? The Padlet board allowed

me to post all of the links in one place. Students can go there for everything they need.

After creating my board, we discussed content curation in this course. I started to think of

ways that my students could use Padlet to evaluate material and organize it onto their

own page. I believe that this would be an extremely beneficial tool for my students to

use.
I also choose to include an infographic on my ePortfolio. After creating mine, I

had my students create one for their weekly vocabulary assignment. The submissions

were awesome! I loved how they were able to incorporate graphics, simplified text, and

data. Also, in my ePortfolio, I included my lesson plan for iBook creation. In this, I have

students research their public policy issue and make an iBook based on what they found.

I felt that this was a very creative way to have students working together and

communicating their evidence through graphics and text. The iBooks allowed students

show their collections of artifacts and make clear connections (ISTE Standard

Knowledge Constructor).
I believe that one of the most powerful tools in education is collaboration among

peers. In class discussions, we had the opportunity to hear ideas and experiences from a

variety of our fellow educators. We were able to respond to one another to ask questions,

make comments, or build off of each others ideas. In A Constructivist Approach

(2012), Morphew states, collaborative tools reveal and clarify students conceptual
understanding and thinking, planning, and creative process. The discussions made it

possible for us to connect with teachers from other contents. I was able to see how

various technology tools can be utilized in a variety of subjects (and grade levels.) One of

the biggest takeaways from class discussions was the personal experience stories. Many

posts would connect the course readings to a specific example in their classroom. I

valued the real-world examples of these strategies in use. For example, I wrote a post

about utilizing Google Drive more in my class asked if anyone has completely

transformed to a paperless classroom. A peer responded with a detailed description of

how she makes it work in her classroom. I valued the authentic response because it

encouraged and inspired me to start transforming my classroom to paperless.

technologies that we were learning about. Many of them detailed why these are

evidence-based practices. Instead of just suggesting that we try this new trend, the

readings explained why the strategy meets the learning needs of our students. One in

particular was our study on content curation. In our reading, Understanding Content

Curation, Nancy White writes, to do justice to using the term curation for education

resources, inquiry must be a part of the process meaning many, many items are

evaluated and set aside (2012). Before reading this article, I had not thought about the

skills that students would practice and learn through content curation. I saw the purpose

behind this strategy. White was able to explain the learning process that students will

experience; students will be actively evaluating, organizing, and analyzing material. The

readings were able to put scholarly research behind educational practices. I firmly believe

that teachers should be putting in the effort to learn why we do what we do.
 In this course, I created a variety of lesson plans that focused on new strategies in

digital technologies for my class. One of the most challenging (but rewarding) aspects of

this was incorporating strategies that I did not know or was comfortable with. I tend to

stick to the same style of teaching because it is familiar and easy for me to create

lessons. In this course, I was challenged to go outside of my comfort zone and employ

new tools. For example, my lesson plan for Module 3 was on iBook creation. At first, I

struggled to get accustomed to the App and learn how to navigate it. Through practice, I

was able to create a sample iBook that I could use to show my students. I felt that

teaching myself how to use the App benefited me because now I am able to explain the

process to my students through a learner's perspective.

my classroom through technology integration. I have gained confidence in my ability to

step outside my comfort zone and try a new strategy out in the classroom. I have been

given the tools to go out and find new methods as technology continuously evolves.
 References

ISTE Standards for Students. (2016). International Society for Technology in Education.

Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students

Morphew, V.N. (2012). A Constructivist Approach to the NETS-T. International Society

for Technology in Education. Retrieved from

http://www.iste.org/images/excerpts/CONNET-excerpt.pdf
White, N. (2012). Understanding Content Curation. Innovations in Education:

reflections on learning. Retrieved from

http://d20innovation.d20blogs.org/2012/07/07/understanding-content-curation/