Final Thoughts

What a journey this semester has been! I signed up for EDUC 578 expecting to gain access to quantitatively-based empirical research supporting (or actually, not supporting) technology use in the classroom. I didn’t expect to be allowed to bring my laptop to class, let alone to use it as the basis of my learning. When a complete 180 breezed in in the form of Professor Heil, I knew I was in for a radical paradigm shift.

Instead of spending the semester burying my nose in books, I have spent the semester building a whole new cyber body. I now have a living, breathing persona in the World Wide Web. Instead of writing pages upon pages of reviews on articles for a single professor to read (that I, myself, would never read again), I have spent the semester cultivating tools that I use daily and take my free time to show off to friends. I made friends with blogger, building a blog that is part class reflection, part soul searching ( read BYOG and Procreation). I also stretched my technological and creative limits by exploring blogger’s dynamic views and customization options with Christina’s Creative Writing Cookbook which I highlighted in my final reflection project. I’ve opened a twitter account, built a PLN, become an active member of twitter groups in my field, diigo’d my heart out and songified everything.

But not everything I’ve learned has been about technology. In fact, I would say that the majority of my knowledge growth I’ve experienced in this course is explicitly not about technology. Thanks to Daniel Pink, I’ve given more thought to the legitimate importance of beauty in business and in life. Class discussions related to Clayton Christensen’s Disrupting Class have changed the way I view the future of education. For a start, I have a newfound respect for online education. Thanks to our professor, I have questioned society’s obsession with grades for the first time in my life. I’ve have spent time inside the walls of a high school for pregnant and parenting teens that gave me a new lens with which to view the purpose of education (see my full reflection on that experience below). I spent a week exploring my passion for yoga which lead to an ongoing conversation with God. How cool is that? In my syllabus this semester I told my students that their success as students was the measure of my success as a teacher. In giving myself an A, I’m giving Professor Heil an A+…and I know how much he treasures letter grades ;)