EDLD+5364+Final+Assessment

Technology enhances teaching. It was my expectation to find a highly-collaborative and interactive course, due to the direction computers and cyberspace have taken. I expected to become acquainted with new theories of learning, as well as new, research-based technology applications that have proven to be effective instructional tools. From my perspective as a special education teacher, I found the topic of Universal Design for Learning very interesting and a solid foundation for planning with technology. Learning how to deliver instruction using this system changed the way I conceived scaffolding in lesson plans due to the fact that UDL planning calls for the lesson to adapt to the class, rather than students needing to get used to to the lesson. Finally, one outcome I had not thought about but influenced me in a positive way was online group collaboration; although our personal calendars differed, somehow our team members found ways to interact, to brainstorm, create and correct, as well as to communicate given a computer and an online service. This was a very practical, hands-on course. From a professional standpoint, I feel it’s evident that the system at our school has been pushing for further differentiated instruction. A multisensory approach to learning is what our administrators increasingly want to see, in a classroom that is diverse, highly structured and very engaged. By making use of technology meeting the demands of our administrators exceeds what is expected from them in terms of professional performance, thus reflecting on professional development assessment, or PDAS. I also expect more collaboration among teachers to address this type of instruction. On the other hand, while at the present time our school is more interested in engagement that technology application, I do see in the near future increasing attempts to make school or district lesson plans adhere to a format closer to a UDL lesson plan. And because to move toward this hypothetical objective would most likely require intensive staff development efforts, I can see myself perhaps in the near future teaching other teachers and making good use of what I learned here. In reality, my concerns about not achieving tentative outcomes are not directly related to this course, but to the actual classroom implementation of the learning activities developed by the team. I would have liked to see how our computers at school are ready to satisfy the needs of a student body that would be using very interactive activities which may in turn affect the performance of available hardware and software in the classroom. I would have liked to see how students would react to a new way of doing things (although I do think about using these lesson plans in the immediate future). In addition, I would have like to see how some of the activities we planned could have been aligned to different grade levels that share the same TEKS. In this case, perhaps a longer course would have facilitated the task of making parallel plans along vertical alignment. Overall, I had no difficulty completing the course assignments. Although hardly ever my project group coincided online at the same time, I think all of us adapted well to the responsibilities of regularly visiting our shared documents and uploading new information. Also, fortunately we didn’t come across any technical difficulty owed to glitches or changes at docs.google.com which could have delayed our common endeavors. Our project team was very diverse in terms of field of expertise; I believe that a more homogeneous group could have come across difficulties while either aligning activities to curriculum and instruction; or making sure that there are sufficient accommodations in each lesson plan for students with special needs. In general, I am very satisfied with our final product, thinking that in the near future, I can help develop similar projects in any given content area, for any given student population at my place of work. This project gave me the opportunity to lead a group. I like to think that I am a flexible person who can teach others how to maximize their technological potential and how to bring their valuable experiences in order to collaborate with the group. I feel that our project group, as is the case with the rest of the class, is excited about the immense opportunities technology offers to enrich the learning experience of our students. It is hard to believe that less than fifteen years ago even large universities had little or no access to the internet. We have come a long way, and I want to be a part of a new generation of teachers who perhaps revolutionize education in our state. Truly, this is an exciting time in the area of technology applications, and that both digital natives and digital immigrants will greatly benefit from what is to come.