This course has been very helpful in getting me to crack away on some of my anti-tech hangups. While I still put a lot of value on the lecture environment and intend to continue it, I do feel that I need to incorporate new tools as well as increase my flexibility when it comes to students needs/desires to use tools that I do not. I was bringing some of these ideas to a discussion I was having this morning, and I mentioned that it really folds into my philosophy about giving students a variety of teaching environments. I used to feel like I had to incorporate everything into my class: lecture, group work, group discussions, individual assignments, projects, papers, and so on because I was trying to play to everyone’s strengths and make everyone happy. However, I’ve grown over the years to see that it is better for me to play to my strengths in lecturing and developing paper writing skills in my students and have faith that they are having experiences in other learning styles in other classes. I think this best reflects “real life” in that their workplaces and employers will have a variety of different requirements and standards that students will need to meet as employees.

Through this course, I have a better appreciation for the way that technology falls into that. I need to be more flexible in my views and protesting of technology to allow my students the experiences they need to prepare them for a diverse and technology-forward workplace after they’ve left school. While I do not believe this to be my sole, or even primary job, I do believe that I do a bit of disservice with too much reliance on the golden days of the lecture environment.