Final Reflection EDUC 6712

My head began to spin as I was reading the list of 21st Century Fluency Skills along with the the new literacy skills that students need to possess. The fact that even though students should already look critically at what they read and are presented with, the enormous growth of the internet has made it even more important to develop these skills. The internet does not come with a safety net. I realize that I must spend a significant amount of time guiding them and helping them develop the skills that will help them look at the vast information available on the internet with a much more critical eye.

The knowledge gained throughout this course, in particular the QUEST model of internet inquiry has pushed me in the direction of project-based learning. These are the two phases that I will focus on within my classroom,, Questioning and Synthesizing. Giving students the ability to inquire about topics that they are interested in will drive them past obstacles that may arise during their research process. By focusing on the questioning phase I can help students get off to a positive start that will carry them onto the final product. The synthesizing phase is key because it helps students make connections to prior knowledge that will aid them in making sense of the information that they will come across.

As for my professional development goals. I want o make technology a integral part of my everyday classroom environment. One way is to become more involved in blogs and social networking, that can benefit my classroom and help build upon my educational foundations. Being a consistent participant will improve my own new literacy skills. I can then be better prepared to model these new literacy skills for my students. Also by building my skills in website creation, podcasting, screencasting, etc, I can continue to build up my bag of tricks.