EDLD+5306+Educational+Technology

[|EDLD 5306 Texas Star Chart.doc]

[|Texas STaR Chart Presentation]

=__**Reflection**__= After navigating the course material, I expected to complete this course with an understanding of what it took to be a technologically-minded instructor in the public school system. I expected exposure to the systems that guide instructors and administrators in meeting state and federal education requirements. I believed, however, that I would possess better than average knowledge of any tools that would used throughout the course but this course that taught me to use a wiki and a blog for educational purposes. I feel that I have achieved the outcomes that I envisioned and that the actual outcomes far exceeded what I expected.

As a college level instructor I had never been exposed to the Texas STaR chart. I was not aware that the Long-Range Plan for Technology existed. I did not know about SBEC or NETS. I also had very limited knowledge of the details of the No Child Left Behind act. Even though my program will likely never be held to these exact standards I believe that this knowledge will assist me in the classroom in that I now know more about the educational background of my students.

Even though not all of the outcomes of this course are directly relevant to my work on my campus I will apply a large portion of this course to the way I teach. Because I teach at the college level we do not generate the data to create the Texas STaR chart nor are we specifically targeted by the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology. Our academic standards are not aligned with the No Child Left Behind act. However, even though my program is not required to do any of these things, an understanding of the aforementioned documents has given me several ideas to use to improve in my program.

A recurring theme in several of the articles that we read is that today’s students do not respond well to a lecture driven lesson. This applies to the college level student as much as any other. My students crave technology and expect that it will be used to educate them in the college classroom.

Unfortunately I can only say that I have a general understanding of the STaR Chart, NETS, SBEC, the Long-Range Plan and NCLB. Because I have never had to interact with these items as a part of my job I do not fully understand how they are all applied. To assist in my learning, I did additional research on these topics. One avenue I used for this research was several long conversations with two public school teachers. They walked me through the process of completing the questionnaire that gathers the individual teacher data that is used to generate the campus STaR chart. They explained how the No Child Left Behind act has influenced testing and teaching since 2001. We also talked about how the Long-Range plan guides the integration of technology on their campuses. Whereas I have a much greater understanding of the topics from this portion of the class, I know that there is so much more I could learn.