A look back at the start of my new journey...

Wow- 8 weeks sure can fly by you when you are busy learning so many new 21^st century skills! Looking back to Week 1 of this course, I realize that I have gained many new technological skills, curriculum applications, and much about my own ability to take risks and try something new.  I would say that my greatest success or accomplishment in this class was simply learning to navigate new tools and create a final product with each “gadget”. I never would have imagined myself being able to create a movie or slideshow in Windows Movie Maker- but I completed several and I am so excited about doing more in the future. The biggest challenge I learned to overcome was that sometimes technology requires patience and the time needed to read through the help desk information. I used to become frustrated, scan over the help desk information and then give up and find something new. For this class, I had due dates and requirements that helped me work through the challenges and problem solve to find a solution. More 21^st century learning going on! If I were to choose something that I could have done better, it would be my first digital story. I was so eager to finish it, that I didn’t take the time to fine-tune the little mistakes. For my final project, I learned to do this.  I would say that I improved my skill with risk-taking during this course, as I learned about and explored with many new learning tools. I was not an experienced student with any of the Module project requirements, yet I learned to become familiar and comfortable.  After this course, I plan to continue to improve my 21^st century skill of collaboration. I hope to be able to share my new knowledge and skills with colleagues and students in a way that they too will be able to showcase their 21^st century learning.  This course has changed my teaching in that I have been motivated to do more with my students and set higher expectations for what I can do as a teacher and what my students can do as learners. I have also learned to make more connections with technology and my curriculum when teaching. As for my personal lifelong learning, I have learned that you are never too old to try something new and that often communicating and collaborating with others will only teach you something more and something useful to what you were discussing in the first place.  I have enjoyed this learning journey in Developing 21^st Century Skills and am eager to continue practicing my new talents.