Overall Reflection

Having completed this course (with the exception of the webpage), I would like to take this opportunity to sit back and reflect on my progression as a future teacher throughout this course. When I first began the class, I already carried a bit of a defeatist attitude toward technology and my ability to successfully implement technology in the classroom. My mom, a digital immigrant as a result of her mere age, had complained of her school's requirements regarding the use of technology in the classroom, and how teachers were expected to teach themselves and each other new forms of technology with nearly no guidance or training. Of course, nine times out of ten, the technology somehow malfunctioned and valuable class time was spent trying to reboot machines or retrieve information mysteriously "lost in cyberspace."

Even in the classrooms I have observed over the past two semesters, technology has rarely been a positive addition to the classroom. My high school practicum teacher used technology constantly in her classroom, and as a result of exploring new technological options, the effort spent lesson planning and even instructing extensively diminished. Students blamed failure to turn in assignments on technological malfunctions, they spent the class period mindlessly practicing Spanish through isolated, meaningless Quia activities, and teacher-student interaction decreased as a result. On the other hand, my middle school practicum teacher shied away from technology to the point that the most technologically advanced piece of equipment in her classroom, besides students' laptops, was an overhead projector. In both cases, technology was misused in the classroom, and it did not give off a positive impression as I started into this course.

However, as time passed and I spent entirely too much time and effort on creating technology projects to accompany meticulous lesson plans, I realized that I did not need to know every single intricacy, inside and out, of the technology that I was using. Although it is beneficial, it is unrealistic, and I do not believe in sacrificing instructional time or planning time to perfect the font color of a SmartBoard presentation. Teachers can use technology effectively without becoming experts or undergoing formal training in the field, and many times, it is a learning process for teachers themselves to use technology. I don't expect to enter the field having taught myself everything about the technology in my classroom, but over time, I can develop myself as a user of technology by taking risks and exploring new forms of technology. In many cases, students are even a helpful resource, as many of them take a side interest in technology and are delighted to share their knowledge with others.

So, despite the frustrations, trials, and tribulations that this course has caused, I find myself more comfortable and at peace with technology. I did not leave this course a technological expert, nor will I ever become one, but I do believe that I have done myself and my future students a service having introduced myself to the basic forms of technology that I can now develop little by little in my classroom. Foreign language often goes hand-in-hand with technology, and it is my responsibility as a professional to utilize technological resources in my classroom.

Podcast

This podcast would be used before the WebQuest created a few weeks ago on studying abroad in Spain. It would most likely be the overall introduction to the four-day WebQuest project to give students an overview of what they will be doing and to use visuals as a way to communicate the broader purpose of their WebQuest assignment. There is a brief introduction to each city explained during the podcast, so that students have a general understanding of the two cities they will be exploring, but it does not give specifics regarding each city, as part of their assignment is to research the attractions, geography, and characteristics of Sevilla and Santiago de Compostela.

I chose to do the podcast entirely in Spanish because I think students will be up for the challenge at the Spanish III level. It is my voice, so there is no strong native accent to make comprehension difficult, and I think it adds to the authenticity of the project, since a lot of their abroad experience will take place in the target language. There is a constant employment of visuals, and I think that this will be enough of a scaffolding to allow students to capture the gist of the podcast even if they cannot understand each individual word. I did not use a lot of text during this podcast, since the visual representation of each city is the essential purpose. I think it would benefit students to see an overall visual that piques their interest in studying abroad and cause them to want to explore more, as opposed to telling them that they are going to explore cities without giving them the motivation and interest to take the initiative.

WebQuest Reflection

The idea alone of a WebQuest scared me to death before this project. Perhaps that was partially because I really didn’t know what a WebQuest was, or perhaps it was because students who had taken the technology class previously had all laughed dryly and said some variation of “Oh God, the WebQuest…” whenever the topic arose. Whatever the reason, my defenses remained high in the face of this topic, and I was weary and reluctant to begin working on it. I cleared the entire calendar the weekend before, packed a meal, and staked out a site in the library where I camped for three days straight. It turned out to be everything I had dreaded: it was time consuming, parts of it were tedious, and there was a list of about 42 things that we were to “keep in mind” throughout the process. Making sure everything worked smoothly, aligned, and was airtight was by far the most frustrating part—as soon as I dared entertain the idea of being finished, I realized there was some gaping hole in the project that required an extra 45-minute fix. Professor Bray’s warnings to avoid perfectionism rang faintly in my ears, but the truth is that it was impossible to be a perfectionist in this project. No matter how much time, effort, blood, sweat, and years of youth go into making a WebQuest, I’m convinced it cannot and will not be flawless. Ever. I actually think it may be programmed to insert an imperfection somewhere in the WebQuest when the threat of perfection looms anywhere in the foreseeable future.

But that’s a story for another day. The point is, creating a WebQuest is frustrating, and its complexity is trying. However, I must say that the feeling of creating such a broad yet focused, intricate yet interconnected quest for students is one of satisfaction and accomplishment. It felt fulfilling to know that I had crafted, from scratch (well, almost, thanks to Zunal’s well-structured guidance), a multiple-part challenge that students would have to navigate themselves through premeditated, scaffolded activities, without the direct guidance of the teacher. Although it requires a lot of overhead time investment, the experience that students gain from delving into a seemingly independent project will inevitably stick with them throughout their learning experience because it is unlike any other type of instruction. The power is shifted from the hands of the teacher to the hands of the student, and they actively seek knowledge themselves, perhaps without really knowing it. It is a rare opportunity for students to be able to learn on their own, and it is a rare opportunity for teachers to see students learning on their own, yet the WebQuest is a technological tool that allows this type of learning to take place.

At first, I was skeptical as to the frequency with which WebQuest could be utilized effectively. I did not originally think WebQuest provided a meaningful experience that justified the efforts on the part of the teacher. However, after creating my own WebQuest and seeing the ideas of classmates, I realized that it is a tool that can be applied to any subject, grade level, and educational topic. It is a fairly novel, innovative way to engage students—all students—in the content and get them critically thinking about and learning the material. Unlike the dry, to-the-point text usually found in a textbook, WebQuests incorporate the fun, engaging, exciting portion of the content along with the factual information (such as in the letters from soldiers who fought in the Civil War) and opens students’ minds up to aspects that would not necessarily be covered in the traditional lecture-based classroom. Although the WebQuest required a lot of time and effort, I think the benefits do outweigh the challenges, and it is a surefire way to capture students’ attention and get them invested in a subject in which they might not have otherwise persued.