Prompt: We have come a long way. You considered your current professional goals for improved technology integration in the classroom and determined why these are necessary skills to practice. You discovered the value of professional organizations, and you collaborated with each other throughout the term regarding technology practices in the classroom. You used a variety of technology tools to improve your own skills. Finally, you researched current trends and future possibilities for technology in education. Let’s take some time to reflect on the outcome. Provide two or three lessons you can take away from the course. How were you challenged? In what way have you been changed? What would you like to take with you?

Video Transcript

Hey family,

As I reflect on the last few weeks of study concerning integrating technology in learning, I would like to offer two points of personal reflection. First, this course developed my overall understanding and working theoretical framework of learning; and second, this course reinforced how wisdom tempers the overhype of technology.

Concerning the latter, as I have quoted before, Crouch (2017) warned how “[w]e are stuffing our lives with technology’s new promises, with no clear sense of whether technology will help us keep the promises we’ve already made” (Preface, para. 6). Meanwhile, the foolish telos of contemporary education principally promises peak scholarship (Schank, 2015). That end is not the educational highpoint but rather an offshoot branch on our tree of learning. Even if scholarship promises higher salaries, it does not pursue better, wiser living. Therefore, many academic technology reforms lag generations behind and follow questionable science even opposing empirical learning principles (Coffield et al., 2013).

However, that point circles back to the first thing this course changed about my overall understanding. Namely, the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) framework develops and integrates educational technology in my heuristic learning theory of personal and interpersonal development (Roblyer & Hughes, 2019). That lens empowers my technology-supported learning and teaching strategy. So, TPCK strategy and wisdom for technology integrated learning are my two personal reflections.

Thanks!

     – Ray

References

Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., & Ecclestone, K. (2013). Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: A systematic and critical review. In D. Scott (Ed.), Theories of Learning. SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446286173

Crouch, A. (2017). The tech-wise family: Everyday steps for putting technology in its proper place. Baker Books.

Roblyer, M. D., & Hughes, J. E. (2019). Integrating educational technology into teaching: Transforming learning across disciplines (8th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc.

Schank, R. C. (2015). Teaching minds: How cognitive science can save our schools. Teachers College Press.