I believe that I will be leaving CEP811 having learned two main ideas: how to incorporate Universal Design for Learning into my lesson choices and how to develop web-based technology for my classroom. We spent a large portion of this course talking about Universal Design for Learning and often based our lessons (lesson plans, StAIR, etc.) around this idea. This perspective made me approach teaching and learning with a new set of eyes. I started to think about my lessons and question how I could incorporate technology into the lesson to meet a larger spectrum of student learners. I began to recognize how different programs are available to help meet different types of learning styles. I think this realization could be seen in my StAIR creation. When I developed this resource, I tried to have varying examples. There were videos, links, visuals, real-world comparisons, and so forth. Even now, however, I see ways I could further adapt my StAIR to reach even more students. For instance, my deaf and hard of hearing students would not be able to “hear” my videos, but only see it. Perhaps I could look into ways of including a caption to this video for future versions to meet these student needs as well.
Basically, I have learned that when integrating web-based technology, learning will be most effective if I keep in mind whether the resource meets the UDL principles. I want to implement technology when I know it is enhancing learning and providing more learning opportunities for students compared to a lesson delivered by myself alone. Technology is an opportunity to really enrich the learning process, particularly for students that don’t benefit from basic lecture-based classrooms.
Although I do not teach in Michigan, I really liked the Michigan Merit Curriculum Online Experience Guideline Companion Document that we explored in this course. I personally would like to incorporate many of these ideas into my future classroom. So far, I think my technology integration has been baby steps. While I have learned how to use features such as blogs and wikis, I have yet to have an opportunity to incorporate these into a classroom-based setting. I have, however, been able to establish a basic classroom website that highlights our class calendar and useful mathematics links. In the future, I want to switch from a website to the wiki that I created in this course. I would like to have my students use this resource next year in our learning. We could create classroom discussions, share math problems, and have podcasts or videocasts about topics we are exploring.
As a mathematics teacher, I also believe it is important for me to make an active effort of videocasting all of my lessons and embedding them onto my class website. This will be a great resource for both my students and their parents during homework and studying. I think realistically I will start by recording lessons that incorporate all of the “main ideas” of a unit and then eventually seek recording a majority of my lessons. I think that the more I create these videos, the easier it will be for me to eventually mass produce. I still need to reflect on certain elements of how I want to videocast, such as if I want to use videos recorded during class or personal videos recorded after school. To be honest, I probably will do the videos independently because it might require a lot of editing do a “live” lesson. However, I think I will learn what I like by exploring both options.
Overall, I have had an opportunity to really gain experience with different online tools. I have learned how to create and set up different resources, such as websites, wikis, and stand-alone instructional resources. During each creation, I was able to think about how it will impact my teaching for the better and how I can use Universal Design for Learning to enhance my classroom experience. With the tools I have gained, I know that I will be able to take each resource and continue implementation and exploration beyond this course.
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