Final Reflections

What I Learned
I am pleased with what I learned in this course. I learned about many web tools, like wikis, blogs, and abilities to share materials. I knew about many of these but my understanding is greater having created and used them. I also learned that keeping up with technological advances requires a considerable investment of time because comfort with a tool only comes through practice.

I also learned that many proponents of educational technology make statements about the value and effectiveness of education technology that are as ungrounded in research as the work they criticize.

What I will use.
I am likely to use some combination of wiki or blog to collect student writing and as a way to encourage student reflection. I can see increasing use of podcasts, screencasts, etc. created by me and students as a way of not doing the same thing over and over again. I will be more open to using online data as a way of engaging students in actual problems. Simulations are likely to become a part of interacting with material in different ways.
I will probably drop in on my PLN periodically to graze, but there is still too much to look at.

How my technology principles have changed.
1. I think the biggest change I have seen is a recognition and acceptance that part of education is teaching about the technology. At the start of the class, I felt strongly that technology should be used to support education, but I've come to see that some of the education has to be about how to use the technology effectively. Like it or not, web2.0, social networking, are here to stay until they accelerate into something faster. Students need to learn how to use technology for more than entertainment. Just as I didn't know that certain applications like Google REader existed, let alone how to use, many students are at a similar place. Or they can make a boring PowerPoint, but not an effective one. At the same time, I can see where knowing a technology may be more important to students than some of the performance standards in science. Proficiency in electronic communication may be more employable than knowledge of electron orbitals.

2. I am not sure how to state this as a principle, but technology and web tools do challenge educational standards. Knowing "what" may not be as important as knowing "how", or "why", or "what if." One important aspect of PLN and also seen in many digital natives is instead of knowing something, you ask or just look it up. Information is easy to obtain and is not the exclusive realm of the teacher any more. Schools and therefore school standards need to move beyond the recall or recognition of facts to how to use them, how to evaluate them, how to do something with them. Unfortunately, the standards driven approach to education doesn't seem to get it, and I think it will be increasingly difficult to do the job the county is paying me for with the experiences students have available to them on the web outside of school.