Strengths & Weaknesses

Although my level of competency in any area on the UNI surveys did not exceed that of apprentice, I feel that I have many strengths when it comes to technology. First, I feel as though I consider both the positive and negative effects of technology and I do not intend on adding technology to my classroom unless I feel it with create a rich, real, and relevant learning experience for my students. As a “digital immigrant” I continually strive to learn about new technology and strive to stay abreast of current technologies. I am able to use many technologies and frequently have my children “teach” me how to use new programs to enable me to use the technology myself. Through my instructional media class I have become effective in communicating and collaborating with my classmates of different class projects. I believe this will benefit me throughout my career as I continue to use technology to communicate and collaborate with others.

According to the UNI Surveys, I have weaknesses in several areas. Three areas which I would like to work towards strengthening include learning to use graphic organizer software, learning and understanding the copyright laws as they relate to educators, and finding instructional software through professional review sources to insure matching software to the needs of my students. A website that offers help learning more about graphic organizers is http://www.inspiration.com/Educators/Trainer-Resources. I had a very brief introduction to the Inspiration program and would like to more fully understand the possibilities that its counterpart Kidspiration has to offer teachers. A website that I can learn about copyright laws would be http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml. I have been concerned with copyright laws and the legal parameters an educator needs to work with in preparing lessons for the classroom. Finally, I believe that I can gain valuable information from concerning educational software reviews from the website http://www.superkids.com/. Using this site with help me evaluate which software might be appropriate for use in my kindergarten classroom.

A definite weakness that I can see from the UNI surveys and section two of the NETS standards is that I have not designed any specific learning activities for diverse learners to teach any of the competencies listed on either surveys. At this time as a student, I feel as though I need explicit instruction and direction into how to plan and design effective learning experiences that are supported by technology and how I could incorporate them into the classroom. On this topic, I have been able to find a wealth of information concerning technology use at Kathy Schrock’s website located at http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/.