KSP 689: Introduction to Technology in Education-Reflection Stephanie Sampson

I Think that technology is very important to include in education, both from the teaching side
and the learning side. The world has incorporated technology to such a manner that you cannot
avoid it. Students today need to know the things to be aware of online and know how to utilize the
resources at their fingertips. Most secondary students in the United States have smartphones, and
many districts are going 1:1 with devices. The technology is there for them, yet many do not know
what they can do with it. It is the responsibility of educators and schools today to show students how
to use what they have access to. By showing students what they can do with technology within
content-based lessons, schools can set students up to use technology in the workplace. By having
students utilize technology resources within the content areas, they can teach students the content
in new ways. By teaching students how to create their own projects with technology, schools can
encourage students to make new technology.
This course was a very interesting course to take while teaching classes simultaneously. Each
week there was new information about current technology that had educational connections that I
could put into practice almost immediately. I found some modules to include technology that I
already used, and then in the discussions portion was able to see new ways to utilize the tech. I also
found ways to revise current technology use in my classes to better fit the Magana T3 framework to
make the activity more authentic.
I found the modules to be set up very well to slowly introduce technology aspects into lessons
using the T1 level of the framework, then moving slowly into the T2 level, and ending with technology
that could be utilized into the T3 level of the framework (Magana, 2017). I really liked the
suggestions that the book had that then could immediately be tied into the assignments that we
created. I also liked that the assignments encouraged us to make technology lessons or look into
technology resources that connected with what we are currently teaching. This made it really easy to
find time to do the work, compared to other classes that worked in a more hypothetical manner. I
really enjoyed being able to make assignments that worked for my current classes so I could
implement them right away to see the effectiveness and make changes and have real-time revisions
and reflections to put into my assignment submissions.
Some of the things that I will use in the future is the Student Response Systems, as well as
Blogs and Screencasts. I started to dip into those areas when we were looking at them in the course
and am already seeing the value in using technology as an addition to what we already do. My
district has access to many cloud-based programs already, so I really want to see what I can do with
those programs in my classroom. As Games and AR/VR continue to have more educational relevancy,
I will be checking to see if more will work in my content area of Art than what is currently available, as
they are areas that I think attract student interest, yet aren’t where they need to be in the Visual Art
area yet.
Overall, this class was enjoyable to take for many reasons. It lived up to its name:
Introduction to Technology in Education, very well. Many of the technologies we covered are used in
areas outside of education as well, so this course was beneficial in seeing different uses for
technology that people are already familiar with. I look forward to continuing my learning in this area
to continue advancing my knowledge of how to best utilize technology in my classroom in the future.

Works Cited
Magana, S. (2017). Disruptive Classroom Technologies. Thousand Oaks: Sage.