Edld 5352 Week 5 Reflection

EDLD 5352 Instructional Leadership Week 5 Reflections As I went through this course I had hoped to learn as much about 21st century digital technology and its uses in an educational setting as possible. I definitely fall within the “digital immigrant” social class when it comes to integrating digital technology into my lessons. Learning more about blogs, podcasts, and bullentin boards for communicating with all stakeholders was a major goal of mine in this class. The many readings and video lectures were well aligned with the course and helped me obtain a knowledge base to hopefully include these forms of digital technology in my classroom or throughout my campus as I become an educational leader within a school district. Our breakdown and analysis of the Texas Long Range Plan and the StaR Chart will help me focus and align my campus toward preparing my students for the job market in the 21st century. I am by no means an expert at using technology now, nor could I model all of these new instructional methods proficiently, I now have a knowledge base that I can reflect upon and and go to to research possible answers to issues that may arise on my campus or encourage the teachers on my campus to explore wasy to safely use this technology to enhance the learning experience of all students on my campus. This course has opened my eyes to aspects of teaching that I was previously aware was out there but had not even remotely thought about using in the day to day lesson plans and instruction. After completion of EDLD 5352 I am more confident in my abilites to lead a campus in the direction of digital integration on a daily basis. I personally did not achieve each and every outcome that I had set forth to achieve. I still am not comfortable with blogging or getting information into my blog. I am still a “face to face” kind of person and prefer to speak to people individually but I know as I become and administrator I am going to need to communicate with many stakeholders at once and meeting each one of them not be feasible. These new tools will be a way to get information to the stakeholders and allow them to respond in kind in an open forum situation. Also, integrating different software medias and importing information from one software medium to another is not a strong suit of mine, this course forced me to try and achieve this outcome and after many attempts and failures on assignments I still am not where I need to be in this aspect of digital communication. For the most part I feel that I have successfully completed the assignments set forth in this course but as the course has gone forward I think my enthusiasism for completing the assignments has waned. I have not been able to successfully upload assignments into my blog from other software types, this has led to much frustration and some swearing. Research and analysis is one of my stronger points and the early assignments were more to my liking. Analysis of the Texas Long Range Plan and StaR charts and reporting on these were my stronger points of the course. As an “older” generation teacher I have mentally fought the change to the new wave of technology and also I have worked in districts that were not blessed finacially and have not had the resources to provide this type of digital background for me. As I progress as an administrator and educational leader I will be faced with budgetary decisions to provide the necessary facilities and resources for a complete and positive educational experience. My patience and overall lack of technological skills provided the biggest barriers for me in completing all my assignments to my satisfaction. Overall this course was very good for me, and “old school” guy. This course opened my mind to areas to incorporate into education and leadership that I had never even considered in the past. My attitude toward integrating technology into the educational experience has changed to some extent but I still do not think we need to turn our lessons or classrooms into video games or arcades to keep students

interested in what we are teaching. Yes, the playing field is changing but the core of what students need to learn has been the same for centuries and I do not feel that will change, only the presentation method need to adapt. I have learned that I am no where near where I need to be in my usage or knowledge of what is out there to make education current for not just the students but the community and stakeholders of my community. Blogging has the potential to provide a very useful avenue to provide and receive information from students, parents, or stakeholders throughout the entire community. As administrators blogs could be used to post information concerning day to day activities at the school, report positive achievements of students or student organizations such as band, athletics, UIL academics, etc...for all to see and respond to. Indvidual teachers can set up blogs to have open discussion with students about topics they are studying in their lessons. This will provide students a media to express their opinions on topics and respond to others students posting of their opinions in an open forum. Students can create their own blogs and post their assignments to their blogs for teachers to review and respond to as well. There are always growing pains when it comes to moving into a different era of instruction. When placing information on the internet it is available for all to see and respond to and any time there are communications between administrators, teachers and students there is always the potential for unwanted or unintentional relationships between school employees and students. I have never given our my phone number or email to any student because of this concern, but I know teachers and fellow administrators who do. I have not acquired this level of trust yet. Also controlling the copying of materials or students sharing their assignments is an area that must be addressed and overseen. But overall I feel the positive will outweigh the negatives and blogging will be an integral part of admininistration and instruction in the near future. As mentioned in previous statements blogs can and will be used to communitcate with parents and stakeholders all information concerning day to day activites of the school. Communication of upcoming events, discusson of curriculum changes or ideas, announcements of achievements of students or student groups. All of these items can be posted to a school blog and open for the community to respond in positive or negative ways. This open line of communication between the Admininistration and the stakeholders will be in real time and everyone will have access to this information first hand and have the ability to respond in an open forum. The uses of this type of media for school districts to use can be limited only by the imagination of those who run them. http://tracyadair629.blogspot.com/

Edld 5352 Week 5 Reflection

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