Reflection-Week 8 Reaching and Engaging all Learners Through Technology (6714)

As we near the end of this course at Walden, we are asked to reflect on what we have learned during these past eight weeks and how it will affect the way that we teach in our classrooms.

When we first began to learn about Differentiated Instruction and Universal Design for Learning, I was not really sure what it was and I was a bit worried that it would be hard to implement in my classroom. As I discovered though, I was already implementing many of those same techniques into my classroom already. This course has allowed me the opportunity to take a closer look at how technology can be incorporated more thoroughly into a DI classroom to help all students. The many different resources that I have read about and had the opportunity to try have been very valuable to me. Through the CAST website and others that I came across I have been able to compile a pretty large list of strategies, techniques and new technologies to use. The Differentiation Station social network that we created through Ning was also a great resource. We could share the websites that we found as well as learning about others from our group members that we may have not had the opportunity to come across. For example, I would not have personally looked up any sites dedicated to DI in a History classroom since I teach art, but since a member of my group did, I looked at it and actually found ways that I could change a few things and implement it into my class.

Because of this course, I have decided that I will definitely use technology more to try to differentiate instruction for my students. Many of today's students are more comfortable with technology and using it to help those who need it is a definite goal that I would like to achieve. I also plan to use the surveys that we researched to help students to understand their individual learning styles. This course has been very valuable because it has shown me many ways to adjust my teaching style to help my students achieve more.

Good Luck to everyone with their last course!
Susan