Ah-ha moments revealed

Reflection Summary (Ah-ha moments revealed)

This course has been eye opening and extremely useful. The reason I decided to take this course was to improve not only on my knowledge about the various assistive technologies available, but also how to use these technologies myself. Before this course began, I had used an ipad a bit and felt fairly comfortable as I attended some of your assistive technology training sessions and have gone back to my school to train students and teachers on how to use various applications. Although, I had some training and knowledge about useful apps, how to navigate the ipad, I did not know how to troubleshoot or to properly make suggestions to other teachers about appropriate applications and assistive tech devices for kids. I was regurgitating what I had learned in my training, but not fully understanding why it would be useful. Not understanding the basis of why something would work well for a particular student.

I am relied upon to make suggestions to teachers about programing, teaching practices, appropriateness of activities for kids and it is my duty to teach my colleagues about enhancing performance of individuals with disabilities and providing independent access to a task. I finally feel confident in giving others guidance and advice, so professionally and personally I have gained confidence in myself as a Resource teacher. One question that I had been pondering throughout this course is "How will I implement some of these ideas discussed in class with my students and staff?".  I know that I will be able to implement and apply many of the ideas acquired during our time together as several teachers have shown interest in learning how to navigate the ipad and learn about the apps and when to use them and I know I am up for the challenge of teaching them. I am going to refer these staff members to get training through you (Barb) and then we can follow up by practicing once a week or biweekly (whatever we collectively decide). 

The hands on activities really aided my learning. Having the opportunity to play with the apps myself while getting the background information about how they can be used and going over who would use these apps and how to implement them into your teaching was practical and I found it very useful. I have applied this in my own teaching and a direct result my participation in this class has made me a better teacher and a more supportive colleague. I remember Lindsay asking me one day to fill her in on all the best writing apps for struggling writers. Before taking this course, I would have had to look them up and I may have just simply said iwordQ as that’s what I was familiar with, but instead I made a list of the top 5 I would use and gave reasons why I would use them and who they would be suitable for. I have to admit, I did have a list of the best apps/my favorite apps that I made during class one day and was able to refer to it to provide her with the information. 

Something I believe I struggled with in this course, was listening to instructions. I feel like I did not follow instructions when creating my itunesU courses. I think I had an idea of what I was expecting the course to look like, which did not match the expected criteria exactly. I left out key information and did not follow the UDL the way I know I should have. The quote by Alexander McQueen states,” Of course I make mistakes. I’m human. If I didn’t make mistakes, I’d never learn. You can only go forward by making mistakes. The biggest part of our learning comes from making mistakes. I realize that I did not design these courses in a way that made it inclusive for all. I think of myself as being an inclusive teacher and in terms of ensuring all of my students are engaged and independent, I think that I could have done better. If I could do it over, I would and I have a better understanding of how I would provide access for all students to participate in a way that they were comfortable and more successful. 

To conclude, this course has been by far the most useful and applicable course I have taken during my time at the University level, including my undergraduate degree, Education degree and my Masters of Inclusive Education. Thank you Barb for your guidance and support.