PLEK12 - Goals/Connections

Learning Goals for PLEK12

As I enter my first ever massive open online course (MOOC), I am both excited and, to tell the truth, a bit anxious.  Although I use technology each day, I do not consider myself proficient by any means.  I know that technology can enhance a classroom experience for my students, but I have not been able to keep up with the advances in technology.  With that said, one goal for me is to gain more knowledge in using PLEs as a vehicle for both myself and my students.  It is also my hope that this course will provide me with the basics to get a discussion moving to improve our school’s ability to actually keep up with the technological advances that are being made, and how this technology can make our school better tomorrow than it is today.

Connecting PLEK12 to my Practice

As a teacher in a school where technology is a key component of our middle and high school, I want to learn how to incorporate more technology into the classroom.  Although our students in both the middle and high school are required to have/use laptops in their classes each day, I would be remiss if I were to say that the majority of our students really understood what they were capable of doing using technology.  Often, our school defines technology in the form of PowerPoint presentations, guided web quests, and creating colorful pamphlets, so incorporating a more open means of assessment and expression would be very beneficial to my students.  I think providing them with the opportunity to learn more about what the Internet has to offer (Google is not the answer to everything) would better prepare them for the academic challenges that will be with them throughout their lives, as well as give them a means to express their knowledge in a format that can be taken seriously.