Week 5 Assignment
Course Embedded Assignment
Reflection
EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics
and Web Design
Self-Assessment
Having completed the EDLD
5366 I feel I
grew as an educator. The step by
step process of learning the significance of branding and logos helped me to
better understand my own self-reflection as well as having my students reflect
to allow the students the opportunity to gain knowledge of themselves. I gained understanding about the
importance of self-branding in the Alcantra article. The statement in the first article in
week 2 really made sense to me. “Essentially, a brand is an idea and perceived value formed by its intended audience based
on a company’s culture, product, and service.” (Alcantra, 2009). Each area within the campuses, either the
classroom or the complete campus are identified by the perception of the
students and community. What is perceived as the culture and attitude of
the environment of the campus and classrooms identifies the brand of that
school or class.
We are targeted at an early age by companies targeting children, my own
children in the 80’s and 90’s were able to identify with My Buddy dolls and the
Cabbage Patch dolls. Branding is everywhere even when the students are not
aware of what brand they are creating for themselves using social media
programs.
Self-reflection of the course impressed me, something I have started to
require my own students. As our opinions and priorities change as we grow, the
reflections on our successes and failures allows us to gain more understanding
and allows for more growth.
When I was assigned to give my opinion on what the Web will look like in 5
years I had to really stop and think. Having a history with using technology for
the past 30 years I believe the possibilities are truly endless. I can see that
the development of social media for an educational tool will happen, as it now
is being used with programs such as Edmodo. In my opinion kids are learning
from social media now and that is with or without adult supervision. It is our
job to temper the inputs of what the kids are seeing and hearing, teaching the
kids to decipher the value of the information they are accessing. Today it is
so easy to get information the skill of deciphering value will and is necessary
for all students.
Learn as a Learner
As a person who has passed the half century mark I decided to that I would
take the approach in this course that I would keep an open mind. I took some time and focused on trying
to understand why branding is important in educating students, not just how it
works. I got the sense that
some very intuitive educators had really reflected on the importance of
students understanding why they learned the things presented. My strategy worked in that I believe I
have a better understanding of the different ways learners can learn.
“The most powerful
learning often happens when students self-monitor, or reflect.” (Gerstein,
2011). This statement made
an impact on my relationship with my colleagues and students. As I understood the concept I came to
the realization that if it worked well for students it has to work for
educators as well. Since I
pride myself on being a lifelong learner I have had to use reflections on both successful
and failures in my life and career to gain knowledge about myself and how to
improve my work performance. I firmly believe to be a true leader; I
should perform as I expect my students to perform. I have to learn more about the
reflection process and its use both for the students and myself.
According to Bloom's
Taxonomy Blooms Digitally, people who are creative are in the Higher Order of
Thinking Skills that he revised in the 1990's. (Churches, 2008). As I continue my internship at Clear
Creek ISD, and continue to assist with staff development, I think it is
important to use Bloom's verbiage to the teachers and staff. As we transition
to technology based instruction with the one to one tablet initiative it should
be easier as we move along. I can see excitement and some apprehension in
several of the teachers I interact with as new technology has been introduced along
with the new tablets. I believe the excitement
is the result of previous successes with other programs. Our teachers have
grown accustomed to recording grades in software programs and answering
parent’s emails about their child as well as updating classroom websites. In
regards to the training the simpler and less time consuming methods have proven
to be effective. I think if we build on these and other successes, teachers
will embrace higher thinking leading to higher learning. It is up to our district’s
technology leaders to incorporate higher order thinking in teachers through
training and demonstrations. Bloom's Digital Taxonomy Triangle will make it very
easy to explain the process to teachers in the classroom.
Alcantara, Lea. (2008).
The art of self branding. Retrieved from
http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/the-art-of-self-branding-part-one/.
Retrieved 02/22/2012.
Churches, A (2008)
Bloom’s Taxonomy Blooms Digitally. Tech & Learning. Retrieved 02/22/2012 ,
fromhttp://www.techlearning.com/article /8670. //
Gerstein, J. (2011,
August 16). Where is
reflection in the learning process? Retrieved
02/22/ 2012, from User Generated Education:
http://www.usergeneratededucation.wordpres
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