My Action Plan 1. A brief overview of what you learned in the course. How important engagement of the student is through the entire process and how technology can assist this. Also being flexible and open to technology in regards to representation and expression and provide choices to students.
2. What you learned about yourself while doing the course--strengths, interests, preferences, needs I have been reminded of my past prejudices when it comes to technology. In 2005 I adopted a young child and was hyper-sensitive about exposing her to tech. That meant me avoiding it as well, so I was behind when I went back into the classroom! A few years later I took a class while teaching ESL to adults at VIU. This exposed me to far too many apps and possibilities, and left me feeling overwhelmed. That experience taught me the importance of becoming an expert at a few relevant applications.
3. How you hope to use what you've learned to continue personal/professional growth. In the immediate future, I will use this information to teach high school ADST. It will help me tailor the class to individual needs of students. As there will be twists and turns in my career the information will be kept accessible to be used when needed.
4. What you hope to share with colleagues, parents of students, someone else. To use an application such as Freshgrade or Google Classroom to share course content and student work with parents with the goal of keeping students accountable. If parents are on board students are much more inclined to be on board and engaged in the course work particularly in a remote learning situation.
5. Which digital learning tools have potential to make a difference in your world and why. To effectively use just a few of the suggested applications would be an acheivement for me! My challenge to myself is to take this introduction slowly and to monitor and gain feedback through assessment as to how this is benefiting students. At this time I hope to work smarter not harder for the benefit of my students. Specifically, I hope to initially incorporate Google Suite (Google Classroom, Google Read and Write, Screencastify), Freshgrade for eportfolios, and Nimbus for student blogs. I believe student blogs would be a great way for them to stay engaged and give them a purpose. I plan to eventually incorporate mind-mapping apps and drawing apps and include more as my comfort level grows.
6. An "aha" moment you experienced during the course Learning about UDL awoke me to the expanse of learning possibilities via technology. I had no idea what was available.
7. A goal you have for using technology for yourself or for learners you support To effectively engage students with learning challenges particularly those with ADHD and to keep them on task in a potentially unstructured environment. Use technology to create independence and confidence among all learners in my ADST class.