Reflective Essay

"Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society" has been a wonderful class, full of great learning experiences. I have enhanced my knowledge of technology from participating in the weekly discussions and completing the weekly assignments. There are so many things you can do with technology in the classroom that I was not aware of before taking this class. One thing that I have learned and plan to incorporate in my classroom is how to set up blogs and use them as a tool for learning. I have always tried to make my class learning-centered and not teacher-centered, because it's not about me, it's about the students. In the future I hope to be able to attend some workshops or training on using different forms of technology in the classroom for my content area of Math. Two long term goals I have are to try to do a technology-based lesson at least twice a week and to somehow make it where students can complete and submit their homework online. To do these things I will need access to technology which will come from my school upgrading the technology.

Evaluating 21st Century Skills

The "Partnership for 21st Century Skills" website is a great website and resource for teachers, students, schools, and the community. It was surprising to see the number of states that have take the initiative to join the Partnership for 21st century skills (14 out of 50). There was nothing on the website that I disagreed with. As I stated before, this website is a great resource for students and teachers. AS a teacher I like that fact that they have "Tools & Resources" on the website such as Professional Development Assistance. This shows that they are committed to the professional development of teachers in my opinion.