Barrientos-Figueroa 1

Daniela Barrientos-Figueroa

Lewallen

EDT 180

5 December 2019

Final Reflection

Growing up in a household of educators, I saw plenty of word documents, power point

presentations, and excel spreadsheets while my parents were working to prepare a lesson. While

in school, I had teachers that used these same applications to teacher their lesson, but I always

viewed it as a boring way of learning. When I enrolled in my classes for this semester, I did not

really know what to expect, but I thought that EDT 180 would cover these basic applications. To

my surprise, we had the opportunity to explore so many other applications and technologies that

could potentially be used in a classroom. There are so many technologies that allow for up-close

and hands on learning, which could be very beneficial for certain subjects. Interactive learning

helps keep kids engaged, and some of these projects we completed could even be assignments

for students. These projects gave me an example of the types of technologies I wish to

incorporate into my class to prevent me from using what I now consider ‘outdated’ applications.

Reflecting back on all of the assignments for this course, I can easily say that I had the

most difficult time with Audacity and Weebly. I used Audacity in high school for AP Spanish

and experienced some difficulties with the application. There is no tutorial for it and the

functions are a little difficult to understand. When creating my podcast for both the

communication and expression module, I used Audacity to edit and add music, but it still proved

difficult for me to navigate my way through the app. Luckily one of my roommates had some
 Barrientos-Figueroa 2

previous experience with Audacity so she was able to show me how to add music and make it

fade into the main part of the podcast. Because of this, when I needed to add music and edit my

expression module podcast, I was able to do so problem free. Besides Audacity, Weebly

presented me with yet another problem. I have always considered myself to be technologically

challenged, and Weebly only further confirmed that view. Luckily, there was a tutorial section

for how to add pages and links making my experience a little easier. Overall, whenever I deal

with something that is giving me trouble, I learned that I can always ask my classmates for help

or watch tutorials on YouTube.

If I were to compare the first assignment with one of the last assignments, it is obvious

that I learned the importance of the peer review process. Out of the four different modules we

completed, I gained the most from the last peer review. The first modules taught me that if I

presented the best possible outline, I would receive feedback that was more focused towards

fixing major problems. What I mean by this is if I rushed an outline and did not bother to edit

myself, the feedback I received would mostly be focused on small mistakes such as grammar and

spelling errors. However, if I took the time to treat my first draft as my final draft, I would

receive feedback over bigger problems like I did with the construction impulse module. When

editing some of my classmates’ work and reading over their reflection papers, I also gained some

good insight about alternative uses for certain technologies. Most of my ideas for alternative uses

were solely for the purpose of improving the classroom, but I read some ideas of how some of

these technologies can be used for personal life. For example, one friend said that she really

enjoyed making her podcast and found that it was a therapeutic way for her to talk about the

things happening in her life. Also, another classmate found that he really enjoyed coding and
 Barrientos-Figueroa 3

wanted to develop a stress reliever app for college students. From these two classmates, I learned

that I need to think outside the box and not be afraid to get more creative with my ideas.

Although there were ways to improve each assignment I completed, I feel like the Inquiry

Impulse Module needed the most improvement. Because this was our first major assignment, I

did not really know what to expect or what was considered a good project outline. If I had the

chance to start over with this assignment, I would make sure to bring the project template outline

with me to the IgnitED lab. This particular template had a significant amount of questions that

we needed to write over, and when it came time to fill out the outline, I had already forgotten

what I had learned in the lab. I could not remember which category each technology fell under

which resulted in me taking another trip to the lab. When it came time to peer review, my editor

informed me that I only wrote two paragraphs for each technology category, but I was supposed

to write two paragraphs for each question in that technology’s category. This particular outline

was very time consuming, but it did not need to be. I easily could have avoided the extra work if

I had been efficient with my notetaking the first time and if I read directions more carefully.

When the semester first began, I remember being very obsessed with my grades and

doing everything for the sole purpose of receiving an ‘A’ in the class. The classes I took in high

school were always just to get the credit and work towards a higher GPA. There were very few

classes that I took an interest in because most of them did not relate to my major. However, after

the completion of the first module and the first few weeks of the semester, I realized that there

was actually a lot to gain from our assignments. As the semester progressed, so did my

involvement and engagement with each one of these modules. I began to think big picture and

questioned how these technologies could potentially revolutionize the way we teach. I began to
 Barrientos-Figueroa 4

use some of these technologies outside of class to experiment how they really impacted my

learning. Because of this, I am able to look back and see how my reflections went more into

depth each time. Even though I will not be continuing with the Teacher’s College next semester,

I still plan to teach. Therefore, I will continue to use these technologies in my own college career

to better equip myself with the knowledge I need to create a better classroom environment.