Building, Sustaining, and Cultivating

I created a circle in google that has my school connections.  I honestly don't know how likely my circle is to grow because I don't know that many people.  I am definitely more of a brick and mortar connection person than online.  Building those relationships are easier for me because you get to know people face to face.  I'm not extremely trusting so this is beneficial because I'm decent at reading people when I'm in a face to face setting.  We have a tech team that is very active in making sure we know the new technology and use it.  Along with that I am a technology person to an extent so I will be paying attention when new things are released.

Final Reflection

Looking back over this semester I think TPCK and SAMR are the two items that I have been impacted by the most.  I truly believe that if I can look at each lesson during the planning stage and make sure I hit the R in SAMR I will be serving my students well.  Some of the items or tools we covered were confusing to me and I couldn't seem to get it to work.  If I can incorpate technology in more than just a substitution way then I will be making a decent attempt of intergrating technology.  Intergrating technology is important to me because we are living in an age where just about every student has used some type of technology on a semi regular basis.  With that being the case some students may be more involved in class if the technology is intergrated into it.  It even increases the chances of some type of class discussion with the addition of some type of discussion board.
Example: spaaze.com
 
I want my students to interact and participate so I believe that the understanding from this class will help me include technology in a helpful and useful way.

Digital Toolbox

Given the framework that we developed in my technologies class there were a few things that I focused in on.  I wanted to be sure that it was user friendly, interactive, age appropriate, and free. All of these are important for my students.  When I was looking at the tools for my digital toolbox I was looking more at how I could use those tools in a live classroom so I depending on TPCK a lot.  I wanted to make sure that whatever tools I chose served as more than a substitution.  I did my best to make sure that techonology was not just an extra little thing but was intertwined in everything.  I realized the further I got into it that the tools I found were more for me than for my students.  However I do believe that if my students are willing to experiment then they will be able to use most if not all of these tools.  I'm not sure how my toolbox will be expanded because I have to keep in mind the area of the state I will be working in and what my students will have access to.  I believe my toolbox will be relevant and easily usable in my history class.  It allows for a decent amount of student involvement and it also gives me a format to work with when having to lecture.  Unfortunately lecture will be a large part of my student teaching.  If you wish to see my toolbox click here.