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LOOKING AHEAD

CONCLUSION

Before we look ahead, first take a look back at all the incredible things you’ve done in this course. Many of you probably felt you were not very techy, but now you can

develop websites!
create movies!
teach copyright and creative commons like a licensing guru!
integrate mobile learning into your classroom!
find and evaluate apps and programs to help you be successful!

You should feel awesome about yourself. You’ve learned a lot, so congratulations!

STAYING CURRENT MOVING FORWARD

Everyone remembers the technology that “blew up” while they were on their mission, away from regular society for 1 ½ to 2 years. Can you guess what technology blew up on my mission?

Email.

Can you believe that? I can’t. I can’t imagine a world without email or the internet. Crazy. Those were truly the dark ages ;-).

Think about how much things have changed for me as a teacher. How different is teaching since we got the internet? It changed everything! It reminds me of this quote from Elder M. Russell Ballard (see https://www.lds.org/ensign/2008/07/sharing-the-gospel-using-the-internet?lang=eng):

“This is the world of the future, with inventions undreamed of that will come in your lifetime as they have in mine. How will you use these marvelous inventions?”

You can be certain of only one thing with technology: The future will be quite different than our present. So what can you do to stay current on trends in educational technology moving forward? Here are some ideas:

Join a professional community, like a Facebook group, or blogging community, so you can get ideas of new technologies as they emerge. That’s what I do—it's what every teacher does. Most of my ideas come from others that I think are great teachers.
Follow smart tech-savvy teachers on twitter or social media.
Attend technology conferences, like UCET here in Utah.
Join my Diigo group. This is free, and you will get an email each week or each day (depending on how you set it up) of the newest technologies and teaching ideas that I see on the internet. Be sure to share your ideas to the group too!
Ask your students to teach you. They will always be a step ahead when it comes to technology, so use their expertise to help your classroom!

Perhaps most importantly, don’t be afraid of new technologies. You’ve learned something about yourself this semester—that you can learn new technologies and be successful! Be confident moving forward that you can learn whatever new technologies will come.

Don’t forget as you learn new educational technologies to not only think about what they can do for your K-12 classroom, but also how you can use them to further God’s work! I truly believe that is why we have many of these technologies, particularly when I see how God’s church is using them in so many effective ways.

Thank you for a great semester, and say hello to me if you ever see me at a conference or on campus!

Assignment

1. Complete the post-course survey and student ratings.