Course Reflection

 The Educational Technology Program offered through the Public School System of the Northern Mariana Islands is a wonderful program for teachers. Throughout the course you learn different applications to use in the educational realm, collaborate with professionals who have been using them in their role as well as collaborate with professionals who are just beginning their journey into incorporating more educational technology into their own classrooms and work environments. Throughout the program you will be challenged to learn and expand your knowledge. Some of the challenges I faced were time, as some of the courses do require a substantial amount of time to complete the work, feelings of isolation as we were the first cohort to do this completely through online means, and also the learning curve for some of the applications. It sometimes would take me more time than others to learn a new application or tool that was being introduced to us. For me the most important thing that I have learned was from our Classroom Instruction That Works Using Technology course. As we moved through the course, I reflected on my current practices as I have been using technology in my classroom, but more importantly made me begin to think about ways I can incorporate more technology into the classroom. It was a good class to help you think about if you are hitting the ISTE standards and if so are you doing it the most effective way. I have realized that I do need to change a few things up in my course in order to provide more effective instruction using technology. Reflection is a very important practice and I now am armed with more knowledge to better evaluate and change my instruction for the better. This program had introduced me to so many apps, ideas, and armed me with the knowledge to better use technology effectively in my classroom.