James Yurick reflects on the evolution of his philosophy of technology in education over the course of a course. Initially, he only saw technology as a way to present information to students in different modes. However, he learned about models like SAMR and TPACK that encouraged higher levels of technology integration and modification of the learning process. He was also interested in mLearning and the potential of mobile devices in classrooms. Creating an ePortfolio helped him stay organized and allowed easy access and sharing of student work. Finally, he believes connectivism, which capitalizes on vast information and technology, will be an important future educational theory.

1. THE EVOLUTION
OF MY
PHILOSOPHY OF
TEACHNOLOGY
By James Yurick

2. In the Beginning
Starting the course I only thought
of technology in education as I
had seen it used during my
career as a student. My teachers
used technology only to present
material to me in different modes
of material. There was no facet
of connectivism or collaboration
built up. Even in my student
teaching last semester I
continued this trend by sticking to
simple sites such as prezi.com or
wordle.com just to present
information in different ways.

3. SAMR and TPACK
My thoughts on educational technology
have changed to that point where I
have started to think about how I can
utilize technology that satisfies the
higher levels of the SAMR model. This
means that the tools I implement must
either modify or redefine the way that
learning will take place in my
classroom. I will be able to achieve this
once I reach a higher level of cohesion
in my technological, pedagogical and
content areas of knowledge, as is
represented by the TPACK model.

4. mLearning
The lecture and information
on mLearning really sparked
my interest because it is in
contrast to everything I
experienced as a student,
which is that mobile devices
were to be left out of the
classroom. I believe that
mLearning really is the future
and it is exciting to think of
the potential it holds for the
classrooms of tomorrow

5. Blogging and the ePortfolio
I really have enjoyed using the
wordpress site and have planned to
start a personal blog after my
exams. The creation of an
ePortfolio is great because it keeps
all the subject material organized in
a single spot. Having access to this
material on the internet is much
better than simply storing it on you
computer because files get moved
around and deleted so often that it’s
much more difficult to keep
everything organized and
presentable.

6. ePortfolio Continued
The additional benefit to an
ePortfolio is the ease at which it
can be shared and accessed. I
can only imagine the delight of
my parents if they would have
been able to access and view my
projects and papers growing up
as a student. It also allows
teachers and students to track a
students growth throughout their
education career.

7. Connectivism
The final thing that I benefited from
learning about in this course is the
learning theory of connectivsm. I can
really see connectivist education being
the future because it is tailored to
make use of the technology and vast
amounts of information that is
accessible today. We need to educate
our students about how best to use
this technology and connectivism is a
great way to do that.