This student took a class about educational leadership that was supposed to focus on instructional principles and curriculum, but ended up focusing primarily on educational technology instead. While the student learned a lot about technology planning and implementation, some of the stated learning outcomes around curriculum and assessment were not addressed. The student felt some assignments, like evaluating websites, were not adequately covered. Overall, the student found the class very informative in learning about technology use in their school and state, and how they can help increase integration of technology into classroom instruction and communication with parents.

1. EDLD 5352 - Week 5 ReflectionLana McLaughlin 12-15-09 I expected this class to be a study in instructional principals and ways to improve curriculum and instruction in classrooms. The course description for this class never mentions technology, so I was completely surprised to find that technology was going to be the focus. When I read the syllabus, the learning outcomes are all about technology and I was a little confused. I was glad to have a class whose focal point was technology, however, I think the course description should also reflect the learning outcomes. I feel that some of the learning outcomes were met in this class, but they were not what I expected when I started. The outcomes that relate to implementation and alignment of curriculum, academic learning, and different forms of assessing and measuring student performance were not addressed or fulfilled for me. On the other hand the learning outcomes that dealt with technology plans, strategies for meeting students’ technology needs, and identifying ethical issues related to technology usage were me, and I feel I learned a lot of new information in this area. The information I gained in this class is very relevant to me as a teacher and as a future school leader. Our school has taken the STaR chart survey every year and I never really knew what it was all about. I feel that this class was very informational in this area and I will be able to better address questions from my math department this year when we participate in the survey. As a department chair, I am able to be involved in curriculum planning for our district. The knowledge gained from this class has opened my eyes to the lack of technology in our curriculum I have been able to make suggestions as to ways we could implement more technology. I was also very unaware of how much of a digital immigrant I really am and as a result of this class, I have taken steps to immerse myself in learning more of what my students already know. One of the outcomes listed was to evaluate websites. We did not learn anything about characteristics of a good website nor did we evaluate any sites. Many of the articles we read were outdated and with technology being in the forefront of education, I would think that there are more recent resources available. I do not feel that the discussion posts of 7-8 articles each week adequately met the performance outcome of using e-communication to reflect on learning. The posts became extremely laborious and from my perspective, it was a chore and not a positive learning experience. Two or three carefully chosen articles, using the current format would have better met the standard. I was successful in doing all of the assignments. I am concerned about the week 4 assignment, however. The directions were very vague and it was difficult to figure out what needed to be done to complete the assignment accurately. Other than that week, I felt the other weeks’ expectations were reasonable. I had never created a blog before and thought that was a valuable experience and started thinking of ways to implement blogging in my classroom. I also had never used Slideshare and can see many ways that could be utilized in classes and curriculum. I was able to complete the discussion posts each week and did enjoy reading other people’s comments. There were way too many comments to view and respond to adequately and it was difficult, because of time, to actually carry out a conversation with others. I came away from this course learning many new things. I learned that there is a long range technology plan in the state of Texas and what it includes. I realized that my district is about in the middle as far as meeting goals of the state’s plan. I also discovered that my district also has a technology plan. Although many people at my school think we are on the cutting edge of technology because we Smartboards built into every classroom, I found that we really are not on the cutting edge of any technology use. We are still very much stuck in a teacher centered mode when technology is implemented in the classrooms. Teachers use equipment and tools to show kids things, but there is very little creating on the part of the students while using technology. I was actually excited to create the Powerpoint about the STaR chart. Most teachers at my school are as unaware about this as I was. I have asked my principal if I can share my PP with the staff before we actually take the survey. Blogging has opened up a new world for me. I can envision using blogs to host meeting between teachers, teachers and parents, etc. It could be a huge time saver to meet virtually rather than meeting face to face. My learning community has created a website for our team while I was taking this class. I recommended including a blog link on the site for parents, students, and the teachers to use to communicate about our class assignments, expectations, etc. We had to really think about worst case scenarios pertaining to a blog. We wondered what to do if someone posts something inappropriate and decided that someone would have to monitor the posts and have the power to disallow them if they were not helpful. Blogging could also be a way to get information to many people with quickly. Parents are begging to have more information about what their kids are doing and have expressed this need to our staff. I think a blog could be a way to meet this need. I think parents and some teachers fear blogging because of some bad press about they have gotten in the media over the past few year. I think this is an unfounded fear and it could be dispelled with education. We need to provide training to our parents so they will know our intentions in using a blog and ensure them that there is an educational reason and a valuable reason to have students blog. We also have to take special care to educate our students of the ethical issues when using internet technology. There would have to be a careful teaching process before students were turned loose on a classroom blog. It might be helpful to set up a blog and have classes respond to questions and to each other and then check it each day in class while teaching about what is appropriate and inappropriate in this arena.