Lessons+Learned

=Lessons Learned=

In a little over a week, I have learned just how ignorant I have been regarding the plethora of online tools that have the potential to benefit me, and, more importantly, to benefit students that I work with in my own classroom. If it had not been for my experience in EDUC 533 last summer, I may have not really been aware of any of the Web 2.0 tools discussed in this class. As embarrassing as it is for me to mention this, a friend of mine regularly uses webstarts and Audacity; tools that I had never heard of until this course. In some ways I feel that I could have improved a lot of my previous classrooms with the use of many of these tools, not to mention I could have provided new venues and opportunities to enhance learning development for a vast majority of my students.

I enrolled in this course because I felt I might learn about some tools that could help me better facilitate student learning and //jazz// up my classroom to increase student engagement and motivation. However, I see now that I may have set my expectations too low. For the most part, when I had student use computers and the internet, the outcome was to provide time for them to search for information and occasional times provided for word processing. While I believe this was not a complete waste of time, I am quite sure that I could have not only increased their 21st century skill levels by providing access and time to work with Web 2.0 tools, but I could have increased their ability to use critical, creative, and innovative thinking. Additionally, I know that I would have provided more opportunities for each student to take charge in their educational experience. The classroom might even have been seen as //fun// as a byproduct of the use of so many tools. Again, I would never think that learning would definitively improve because students were using Web 2.0 tools, but I know I could have developed curriculum, lessons, and learning opportunities enhanced by Web 2.0 tools that would have increased learning and skill development.