ED 722 Personal Case Study

The final assignment for ED722 requires us to reflect upon ourselves as a learner and describe the knowledge, skills and dispositions employed that make or “could” make us successful  as an online or blended educator.

During this semester our courses we focused heavily on Deeper Learning, Project Based Learning, Academic mindsets and student work. All of which were very interesting and engaging. I learned how to use more online tools as well as become more comfortable with tools I had already used in past courses. I began to use Twitter more and more as we were required to tweet responses to some of the learning we did in the DLMOOC but I also tweeted other educationally related material and found myself seeing Twitter as a very valuable tool. I also became very comfortable with using Storify as that was the tool we used to record and reflect upon our learning for the week. I also felt as if I learned even more about the various topics by reading my classmates Storify posts.

I feel that I could use these tools as well as others with students and be very comfortable embedding this technology into my lessons. Starting tomorrow I will be guiding a group of students through the book Crossover by Kwame Alexander, and the first assignment involves an activity using the online tool Glogster. I am looking forward to the task and seeing what the students create.

I have also realized as a learner that perseverance is key, especially when dealing with the unknowns of technology. What I mean is that by sticking with a tool or topic involving new technology and learning I now have a more confident outlook as I see the many benefits of e-learning. You might say that I have a “growth mindset” when it comes to exploring new areas of teaching and learning. I have begun adding  another unit to My Digital Learning Hub and along with a classmate have created a website titled NHPS Math Media Hub where teachers can post and borrow math performance tasks.

When I look forward into my career as an educator with a background in IT & Digital Media Literacy the future looks exciting. I know as I experience more topics and tools involved in blended learning that I can become a more proficient online educator.  I will continue to encourage both the teachers at my school and the students to use a more 21st Century approach to teaching and learning. I hope to share what I have learned about blended learning with them as well as others in my district. I plan to continue curating my online identity through my Digital learning Hub and my Blog page. It has been such an eye-opening experience.