Are the outcomes relevant to my work?

The outcomes I achieved in the Educational Technology course, EDLD 5306, are relevant to my role as an educator. Honestly, for 3 years I have been completing the STaR, Student Survey. Well, now I really understand that it charts how well the teacher, school, and district are completing the goals set in the Texas Long-Range Plan. This makes my work more meaningful as I make valid connections.
Prensky (2005) made the connection for me again when he introduced the understanding of digital immigrants versus the digital natives. Up until this course, I thought that I could become a native immigrant. Now I understand that it is nothing I can do now to become a native. However, I can compensate as a digital immigrant willing to learn technology now. Prensky said, “Not-so-smart immigrants spend most of their time grousing about how good things were in the ‘old country’” (2005). I agree with Prensky. To progress forward, one must not complain, but one must find the solution to the problem.
Another worthwhile outcome was the Web 2.0 technologies, wiki, and blog that I learned. “The next wave” is here now (Mills, 2007) and I plan to learn and progress with the new wave. I had already used photopeach in the classroom; however, animoto is a comparable application that would fit my Reading lessons. The wiki gives the all the students a voice where they can work collaboratively online on projects (Warlick, n.d.). I plan on incorporating more of these tools in my lesson plans to allow more time for classroom instruction. The blog is a resource I could use for current events, novel reviews, and personal reflections on selected text. All of the resources and usages seemed overwhelming. I plan to set a timeline of what tools I will use to increase student learning.

References
Mills, Lane. (2007, December). The next wave now: Web 2.0. The School Administrator. 4-5.
Prensky, Marc. (2001, September/October). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On The
Horizon, 9(5), 1-15.
Warlick, David. (n.d.). Wikis can be a multitasking administrators best friend. The Executive
Wiki, 36-38.